Their names are Julius, Pippo, Laura and Luigi. They are special people, heroes who live stuck in their bodies, prisoners of ALS. They are the warriors of our times who tonight, Tuesday 18 June, will be the protagonists at 11.15pm on Rai3 of a docufilm entitled “With a blink of an eye” created by Libero Produzioni in collaboration with Rai Documentari, and with the patronage of Aisla (Association Italian amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). A project born from the meeting between Libero and La Meridiana Società Cooperativa Sociale di Monza who together decided to tell, thanks to Libero’s creativity and the scientific support of La Meridiana, emotions and fragilities by experimenting with new ways of narration.
A special narrative where the eyes of Julius, Pippo, Laura and Luigi will “speak” and with “that blink of an eye” they communicate with the world every day, even if confined to a bed. With that “blink of an eye” they speak with their parents, with their wives, with their children, with their friends and thanks to social media also with those many followers who follow them and have discovered and known their story. The docufilm was shot in the Monza Park, in the gardens of the Costa Bassa farmhouse, home to the integrated day center managed by the La Meridiana cooperative.
“The docufilm, however, is not just a story about ALS, but a journey that also makes us reflect on our lives, on how important it is to express ourselves and communicate with others, to remain alive and present – explain the promoters of the project -. It is a story that is aimed at everyone because it talks about fragility and illness, but above all about human relationships and relationships. People suffering from ALS do not have the opportunity to interact in the same ways and times as a person who does not have this type of disability. Their response times are long and above all they can only communicate with us through eye movement, a keyboard and an electronic voice.”
Dialogue with the witnesses who lent their voices to Julius, Pippo, Laura and Luigi is Drusilla Foer. The testimonies of the four protagonists were collected through personal questions that the authors sent them during the writing phase. The answers to these questions were then read by a person chosen by the protagonists themselves (the wife, the partner, a daughter, the sister).
“The encounter with the other is a place that generates one of the noblest feelings: understanding – commented Drusilla Foer -. This experience changed my outlook on life. And to the courage we all owe to the life we are given. I am grateful to have experienced it because it made me understand, more and more deeply.”
The reading and interpretation of the thoughts of the four protagonists was entrusted to Aldo Baglio (Pippo), Francesca Cavallin (Laura), Antonio Ornano (Julius) and Gianluca Ratti (Luigi). Special guest of the docufilm is the journalist and writer Mario Calabresi, a dear friend of Laura. The docufilm is accompanied by the choreography of the dancers Riccardo Ardusso, Rebecca Mazzola, Simone Pisconti, Filippo Polli. The choreography is by Ornella Sberna.
“In our opinion, those who are lucky enough to do this job, those who produce content, have the responsibility to communicate and also address issues related to fragility, experimenting with narrative methods that can break away from the usual television clichés – comment Andrea Frassoni and Marco Falorni, respectively author and director of the documentary film -. Thanks to Rai Documentari and the Cooperativa La Meridiana we had the opportunity, as happened with the previous docufilm ‘The memory of emotions’, to tell the stories of people affected by ALS, their families and their emotions, feelings in which everyone can recognize yourself and find a piece of your life again.”
