The world of Luigi Lineri: "La Ricerca", a documentary film by Giuseppe Petruzzellis. Original soundtrack by Nicolás Jaar.

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synopsis

Over the last sixty years, an elderly artist has been working on a monumental collection of stones: La Ricerca.

Exploring the Adige river and the Lessinia mountains, Luigi Lineri has collected and catalogued countless pebbles with human and animal shapes, reminiscent of mysterious prehistoric sculptures.

Stones thus become the instrument to research the deepest human nature, amid primordial memories and omens for the future.

Evoking mythological images, his artwork pays homage to the struggles of men and women who lived through the infancy of our species, allowing us to become what we are. A collective existential investigation, a journey through time, across symbols, art, ecology and technological progress.

Combining the languages of documentary and experimental cinema, La Ricerca is a visionary tale that offers an unprecedented perspective on the human journey and a manifesto of hope for our future.

trailer

director's notes

I met Luigi Lineri and his artwork in early 2015. This encounter ignited an unprecedented marvel and a long series of questions. A spark that started the development of this film.

Luigi's masterpiece is a formidable tool to investigate universal themes. He has materialized a vast field of anthropological, philosophical and even political topics. Many of these contents are extremely actual and urgent, as for example our conflicting relationship with the ecosystem.

Shaping the film structure, I built on top of these elements. Re-contextualized film archives and evocative images/sounds work in an allusive fashion, further exploring the film themes. It's a continue and open dialogue with Luigi and with the audience.

La Ricerca deals with collective empowerment, reshaping lost memories to build a better future. This conservation topic matters also in regards to the survival of the one-of-a-kind art installation created by Luigi Lineri. Given its peculiarities, there is the risk is that it will disappear together with its author, now 85 years old.

This film is a legacy of Luigi's life commitment to art, intended as a way of serving the universal human community.

All these motivations supported the long development process of this project, that lasted over 7 years. During this arc of time, many professional embraced this endeavor, in many cases as a passion project, as happened with the world famous musician Nicolás Jaar, composer of the original film score.

Festivals

World Premiere | Visions du Réel 2023
Italian Premiere | Biografilm 2023
Euganea Film Festival 2023
Cervino Cienemountain 2023
Film Festival della Lessinia 2023
Documentaria 2023
Premio Libero Bizzarri 2023
French Premiere | PriMED 2023
North American Premiere | Le FIFA 2024

Awards

Special Youth Jury Award - Visions du Réel 2023
Grand Prize - Le FIFA 2024
Special Mention Hera "New Talents" - BIOGRAFILM 2023
Best Editing - Documentaria 2023
Andrea Pazienza Award - Premio Libero Bizzarri 2023

Participation of the film project in markets | workshops | development / production / post-production grants

In Progress | Milano Film Network – Development workshop (2016)
BioToB | Biografilm Festival – Market (2016)
IDS – Italian Doc Screenings | Doc/it – Workshop & Market (2016)
Milano Industry Days | Milano Film Network – Winner of Development grant (2016)
Review | Cortona on the move – Development workshop (2019)
L'Atelier | Milano Film Network – Winner of Post-production grant (2021)

PROTAGONIST

Luigi Lineri

Born in 1937 in Albaro di Ronco all’Adige (Verona, Italy). Third of 12 brothers, the father is a sacristan. Spends his childhood in a college in the mountains of Trentino Alto Adige. When he returns home he becomes attached to his grandmother, illiterate yet depositary of traditional rural values. During his twenties he starts to dedicate himself to poetry in dialect, painting and sculpture. He is awarded with several poetry awards of national relevance. His vases, paintings and ceramics achieve success: some of his artwork is exhibited at the Collection de l’Art Brut Museum (Lausanne, Switzerland). In 1964 he starts collecting stones. In 1966 he marries Tosca Guglielmi and during the seventies his daugthers Genziana and Stella were born. After working in family’s shoe shop and then as an healthcare assistant at the Zevio Public Hospital (Verona), since 1985 he has dedicated himself solely to La Ricerca (his collection of stones). His cathedral-sized installation is a never-ending work in progress: every day new additions and re-arrangments. Only in recent years La Ricerca starts to be studied by art critics. In 2010 the first exhibition: Forme solitarie per un’armonia collettiva (Palazzo dei Mutilati, Verona, Italy). In 2012 he participates in the collective exhibition Banditi dell’Arte (Halle Saint Pierre, Paris) and in 2014 in L’autre de l’Art (Lille Metropole Musée, Villneuve-d’Ascq, France). During 2016 Italian and foreign press talk about his artwork (La Repubblica, Reuters, Die Spiegel, Art Magazine, Artribune), and he is a guest on the tv programme Unomattina (RAI 1).

DIRECTOR

Giuseppe Petruzzellis

Giuseppe Petruzzellis (1983), BA and MA in Audiovisual Communication. From 2004 to 2009 he worked as an investigative journalist for the Italian National Public Broadcasting Company RAI. In 2007 he established APLYSIA, a production company specialised in creative documentaries. Since then he has collaborated on more than 70 film projects (19 features), working as screenwriter, producer, director, editor, cinematographer and colorist. Most of the feature films he has edited participated to major film festivals (Venice Biennale – Giornate degli autori | CPH:DOX* | Sheffield Doc Fest | Cinéma du Réel | etc.), were broadcasted on TV (RAI | Sky | Arte) and have had theatre releases in Italy. The short documentaries he has previously directed participated and were awarded at Ji.hlava IDFF | Milano Film Festival | MakeDox | Interfilm | Visioni dal Mondo | Hors Pistes - Centre Pompidou | etc. La Ricerca is his debut feature film, world premiere and Special Youth Jury Award at Visions du Réel, Special Mention Hera "New Talents" at BIOGRAFILM, Best Editing at Documentaria and Andrea Pazienza Award at Premio Libero Bizzarri.

Selected Filmography

La Ricerca (2023 - feature doc)
Non ti scordar di me (2021 - short doc)
Indian Flow (2011 - short doc)
Industrial Bay (2009 - short doc)
Vida Loca (2007 - short doc - written and produced by)