(per la versione in italiano scorri in basso la pagina)
Serenade to the Wind - documentary film
WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT?
"Let my music be
played!" were the last words of Aldo Finzi, the composer that wasn’t
allowed to perform his art because he was Jewish.
In 1937 La Scala Theater in
Milan held a contest for a new opera. The winning opera should have been "La
Serenata al Vento" ("The Serenade to the Wind")
composed by Aldo Finzi, a young, but already successful composer.
But Aldo Finzi was Jewish and
in Italy the fascist regime was about to enact the racial laws, so the contest
was cancelled and the prize never awarded.
From then on, the composer was
forced to work anonymously. With the break out of the World War II, he, along
with his family, had to run and hide to avoid deportation. Years of fear and
continuous danger brought to his sudden death in 1945, just a few months before
the end of the war, without having seen his opera staged.
However, thanks to his family
and friends’ efforts, his music came back to life in the past few years,
receiving the appreciation of musical experts and the public. There was just
one composition that was still not heard by anybody: “La Serenata al
Vento”. The opera, unfairly deprived of its award, had to wait 75 years to
be played. An international coproduction between Italy and Israel made it
possible and in December 2012, at the Donizetti Theatre in Bergamo, finally brought
the opera to life.
WHY ARE WE MAKING THIS FILM?
The end of a war is not the
end of suffering. World War II, just like any other conflict, left behind
terrible consequences whose dangerous effects reached even these days. The
attempt to exterminate the Jewish population and its culture failed, the racial
laws were abolished, but the enormous damage they caused has thrown into a long-lasting oblivion countless people. Among them
were also many artists, writers and musicians, whose works risk to disappear
forever, just like it happened to their lives.
Emerging from this oblivion is
hard, but it is also possible: thanks to Aldo Finzi’s friends and family
members, his music lives again.
We want to tell this story to
keep alive the memory and to encourage the recovery of artists whose life and
work was affected by prejudice and discrimination.
WHAT DO WE HAVE AND WHAT DO WE NEED?
We have filmed the rehearsals
and the premiere and currently we are filming the interviews with various
people in Italy. We need support to complete the filming stage and cover the
postproduction and distribution expenses. That includes the travel to Jerusalem
where the second part of filming will take place.
In detail:
- expenses connected to the filming in Italy
- finishing the filming in Israel (travel and
accommodation)
- copyright costs of the archive footage
- postproduction
- DVD authoring
- distribution (including festival entry fees)
- promotional material (posters,
prints)
- website design and maintenance
WHO ARE WE?
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
You can be part of this
project by helping us in several ways:
One of them are donations.
Your kindness will be rewarded with various perks including special limited edition items, the finished film (on DVD, Blu-ray or the digital downloadable version), having your name and logo appear in the movie titles and being nominated as "Executive Producer" along with having a dinner with the authors. Please note that the perks will be available once the film will be finished. The delivery is estimated for July 2014.
Besides that, you can
contribute by spreading the word about what we are doing. Today social media
tools are the easiest and most effective way to do that, so we invite you to
connect with us by: