TRENT. It is shown today at 3pm (and Monday 29th at 7pm) at the Modena cinema, for the Filmfestival, “Border Peasants” preview of the new film by director Michele Trentini, produced by the Trentino Ethnographic Museum of San Michele with the support of the Trentino Social Dairy Consortium. A documentary film for photography and editing by Trentini who oversaw interviews and research together with Marco Romano.
Michele Trentini what are the roots of “Contadini di confine / Grenzbauern”?
«A few years ago, on the occasion of the presentation of my documentary “Latte nostra” in Rumo, the ethnographer Marco Romano and I learned that almost half of the milk from some social dairies in Alta Val di Non and Val di Fiemme comes delivered by breeders from the nearby towns of the province of Bolzano and combined with that of the Trentino partners, to produce Trentingrana primarily. These farmers, men and women, have been members of the dairies for decades and carry out a little-known form of collaboration, trusting in dairy skills which in Trentino have their roots in the spread of small village shift dairies. Knowing the protagonists seemed important to us in a time in which peaceful coexistence between peoples and ethnic groups is in serious crisis, even in Europe. The Mets supported the project with conviction and thanks to the participation of the Consortium of Trentino social dairies it gave us the opportunity to carry out the interviews and the documentary, in complete autonomy”.
What topics were addressed?
«The work is divided into two parts, the first talks about the dedication necessary to support a family-run farm or livestock farm, as well as the relationship that farmers have with their animals, which they know by name. Thanks to the presence of a deep-rooted culture of haymaking, livestock farming and mountain pastures, the “border farmers” contribute to keeping a healthy and diversified landscape alive and in balance, which differs from those of intensive monoculture or abandonment that we find in many other mountain areas. We tend to take the existence of this type of landscape for granted, but during the research problems also emerged, such as fears connected to the expansion of fruit growing, which according to some would risk “suffocating” animal husbandry.”
And the second?
«It deals more specifically with issues related to the presence of an administrative and cultural border. Sieglinde Mairhofer, from Proves/Proveis, used a happy expression when she said that for her, living near the border “is a gift”. Particularly significant are the words of the Rumo breeder Renzo Marchesi, according to which “if you date you don’t build any walls”. The habit of sharing milk, decisions and dating promotes the perception of the border as a hinge. For Trentino breeders, taking into account the nearby South Tyrolean approach to animal husbandry, based on the presence of small companies that do not aim at the mere maximization of profit, means avoiding settling on the Po Valley model of mega stables. Similarly, some South Tyrolean members have taken inspiration from some virtuous Trentino realities by introducing free housing, technologically modernizing the stables and reflecting on the fact that within certain limits the expansion of the company can also bring advantages”.
What reality did you find from a linguistic point of view?
«All the South Tyrolean farmers we met master Italian very well and sometimes even with many Nonese or Fiemmazze expressions. It is normal for them to change linguistic register depending on the contexts. The people of Trentino could do a little more to enhance their proximity to the German-speaking area, because a language is a key to access a world, which we also have within the Region itself. They told us that in recent years there have been families who take their children to school in the nearby South Tyrolean towns to learn German. This gives us hope.”
Dairies and cheesemakers are also protagonists.
«All the farmers we interviewed declared that they felt an active part of the dairies, that they appreciated the model, the quality of the products and that they were proud of them. We are talking about the social dairies of Rumo, Castelfondo, Fondo and Val di Fiemme. Taking into account the peculiarities of the milk that the different members provide, enhancing its characteristics also through product differentiation, is what we have seen cheesemakers of extraordinary competence and foresight do. Of course the farmers would like their milk to be paid more, but recently we have been told that things have improved.”
The documentary film is produced by the Ethnographic Museum of San Michele, what is the approach used?
«The work is mainly based on some of the methods of ethnography, narrative interviews and film observation. More than interviews, these were meetings in which people had time to reflect in front of the camera, without rushing, in order to develop concepts in a non-prepackaged way. They did it comfortably, sitting within the landscape they bring to life. The observation instead concerned the contexts and work activities, such as pasture care, haymaking, mountain pastures and cheese making. Marco produced a large amount of photographic material and we both elaborated generous field notes, which the Mets intends to enhance through the publication of a volume. This will allow us to delve deeper into various aspects that were necessarily not included in the documentary.”
