With a Best Documentary Feature Academy Award nomination for Fire at Sea this year, Gianfranco Rosi has been thrust into the limelight more than ever before. Like his recent feature, much of his past works have chronicled humanitarian issues, notably refugees, unsurprising given his own past where as a child he was taken from his native Eritrea in war-time to begin a new life in Italy. With his recent prominence, it is timely that Kino Lorber are releasing his collected works to deepen the appreciation for a incredibly talented director.
Synopsis:
Gianfranco Rosi has emerged as one of the most awarded and provocative documentarians working today. His observational films artfully and sympathetically depict the lives of subcultures and displaced peoples the world over. The Gianfranco Rosi Collection includes four of his greatest films.
Boatman (1993)
English, Italian, Hindi with English subtitles / B&W. Gianfranco Rosi’s point of view on the city of Benares. Boatmen, tourist guides and holy men talk about the river Ganges and their death rituals.
In the Hindu religion, the Ganges river is one of the most sacred places, a location besieged by pilgrimages, not just in life, but death too. The dead are brought to the banks of the river and cremated, or set into its waters. A source of drinking water also used by many homeless as a way to cleanse, this confluence of uses makes for a fascinating locale to study. Rosi chronicles events at Benares, a city on the banks of the river, with much focus on Gopal, a local boatman whose running commentary and tales give the film much of its personality, insight and levity.
Life, death, and religion flow through the film, as well as the problems wrought by pollution at this sacred site. In a way the film serves as a microcosm for many of the issues besetting Indian society, notably class divisions, the wealthy vs. the poor, and religious conflict. These are all brought to the screen via an array of beautiful and surprising images and other symbolic elements, and given a very human core thanks to Rosi’s focus on the titular boatman.
Below Sea Level (2008)
English / Color. Below Sea Level, which documents the hand-to-mouth existence of California flatland squatters.
Rosi switches continents to spend 5 years chronicling the people who have left normal society behind to eke out a life in the Californian desert. Forming a new life in a trailer park named ‘Slab City’, we focus on the lives of seven individuals and learn about what they ran from and what they believe and want in life.
While offering little commentary or judgment, the insight into their lives occasionally borders on intrusive, from the viewer’s perspective rather than the subject’s perhaps. Practices and behavior ordinarily behind closed doors are captured and at times impart a weird tone. The look at their lives in interesting enough; the people are certainly engaging characters you want to understand, but the film progresses at a rather slow pace. While the weakest feature in the release, it still does capture the harsh beauty of this place, as well as the camaraderie between these people who have chosen to make new, and very different, lives together.
Sacro GRA (2013)
Italian with English subtitles / Color. Sacro GRA, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, is an engaging tour of Rome’s ring road, populated by a fascinating group of eccentrics.
We’re all aware of the culture, the beauty, the hustle and bustle of Rome, but on its periphery is a 40 mile long ring-road that is an equally vibrant place, The Grande Raccordo Anulare (GRA). Rosi captures the essence of this place, immersing himself in the urban sprawl around one of Europe’s biggest cities. The documentary has a very breezy structure, flitting from character to character, from tale to tale, occasionally snapping back to some core people or places. Fishermen, prostitutes, fathers, a scientist, a paramedic, Rosi runs the gamut of social class and profession giving the film a vibrant, natural vibe.
It’s the sort of film that could be studied to understand many of its nuances, the messages or commentary it’s trying to impart. But after one viewing, there’s a simple interpretation that it’s not trying to be that clever, merely portraying the diversity of this region in an honest way. In this fashion, it avoids the pitfalls of documentaries where they often become judgmental. Sacro GRA remains sincere in its efforts to to spend time in these people’s company in this ode to a city and its inhabitants.
Fire at Sea (2016)
Italian and French with English subtitles / Color. Fire at Sea, an Academy Award® Nominee for Best Documentary Feature and winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, is a heartwrenching portrait of African refugees pouring into the Italian island of Lampedusa.
It seems that not a year goes by where we fail to see the suffering or refugees or migrants on the news. War, famine, natural disaster, whatever the precipitating disaster is, what follows is always a heartbreaking sight – individuals fleeing one place to try and make a better life in another, the hardships en route, and the possibility of not even making it being more favorable than remaining where they are.
Lampedusa is a small Italian island that marks a point between Sicily and Tunisia, bridging these continents and making itself a stop-off point for migrants from Africa and Asia seeking to reach Europe. Rosi captures much of the danger in this journey, shadowing the Italian coastguard as they drag survivors and bodies alike from the water, passengers on overloaded boats looking to make the crossing. Even those that don’t drown are dehydrated, burnt from the sun, or poisoned by the fuel that drives their boats.
Rosi continues his way of no offering commentary; there is no voice over, there are just the people. There are images of these people on both sides, as the migrant influx also tests the people of Lampedusa, most notably a local doctor, Pietro Bartolo who tries to help those he can. We’re all people, looking to make our lives better, and help people where we can. It’s this sentiment that Rosi imbues the film with rather than human suffering, in spite of the commonplace nature of tragedy in this region. An absorbing immersion in human determination and a stark call for action.
The Package
The case is marginally thicker than a normal Blu-ray case and contains three discs. Disc 1: Fire at Sea along with bonus features, Disc 2: Below Sea Level, Disc 3: Boatman and Sacro GRA. Special features include:
- Booklet essay by Nicolas Rapold: editor in chief of Film Comment magazine
- An Interview with Gianfranco Rosi
- Interview with Pietro Bartolo: One of the subjects of Fire at Sea
- NYFF: Q&A with Gianfranco Rosi: courtesy of Film Society of Lincoln Center
- Trailers
The extras are a bonus to such quality films, but it would have been nice for the earlier entries to have garnered some attention. It’s also a shame they couldn’t squeeze in Rosi’s fifth film El Sicario, Room 164, even though its subject matter doesn’t quite align with his other works.
The Bottom Line
In an age where chants of “build that wall” are heard, The Gianfranco Rosi Collection is a perfect rebuttal, showcasing elements of humanity and humanitarianism and insights into people, their cultures, and their needs. Through watching these four films, there is also insight into the refinement of a filmmaker who switches rawness for a no less effecting potency, but never loses track of the human element. A timely and highly recommended release from Kino Lorber.
The Gianfranco Rosi Collection is available from Kino Lorber from April 25th