Delhi, India

Today we shot some inspiring, touching interviews for our documentary about acid attacks: a prominent doctor passionate about women’s rights, a lawyer specialised in human rights who wishes for a revolution, a woman who got attacked when she was only thirteen years old and has been fighting for justice since twenty years cause her attacker has influential friends and never went to jail, an acid attack victim who never got justice and became an activist…

Delhi, morning fog


Shooting Anupama’s story


Me and Ria Sharma, founder of NGO Make Love Not Scars

Dehli, India

I’m here to direct a documentary about acid attacks, focusing on the activity of NGO Make Love Not Scars. We will spend time with many survivors, listening to their stories and witnessing their everyday lives, and will interview highly qualified specialists (lawyers, doctors, human right activists). We just finished the first day of shooting. I’m so grateful to be here, visiting India for the first time, and getting to know extraordinary people involved in human rights. The whole team is passionated and incredibly talented. Together we will accomplish our mission of exploring this dramatic issue in a new light: with hope, courage, and most of all, trusting that a better future is possible. It’s up to us to create it.


Our D.O.P. Greg Harriott shooting beautiful Sapna, acid attack survivor, who performed for us a traditional indian dance.


Sapna


Alejandro (Greg’s assistant), Greg and me setting the frame for the interviews

As we are flying over Afghanistan, the stars shine bright. Right in front of my eyes, the Orion belt. I wonder if anyone around there is looking at us.

Il cielo sopra Kandahar

Mentre voliamo sopra l’Afghanistan, le stelle scintillano fuori l’oblo’. Proprio davanti ai miei occhi, la cintura di Orione. Mi domando se qualcuno, da quelle parti, ci stia osservando.

voyage (n.)
c. 1300, from Old French voiage “travel, journey, movement, course, errand, mission, crusade” (12c., Modern French voyage), from Late Latin viaticum “a journey” (in classical Latin “provisions for a journey”), noun use of neuter of viaticus “of or for a journey,” from via “road, journey, travel”

Helsinki Airport, 03:47pm

What should you bring on a journey?
Comfortable shoes.
Your favourite camera.
An handshake of melancholy.
A will for silence.

What should you leave home?
Fears (lock them firmly in a closet)

And then, dear friend, abandon yourself to the embrace of the Uncertain: what more promising than that?

*

ita

Aeroporto di Helsinki, 03:47pm

Cosa dovresti portarti in viaggio?
Scarpe comode.
La tua macchina fotografica preferita.
Una manciata di malinconia.
Desiderio di silenzio.

Cosa dovresti lasciare a casa?
Paure (chiudile per bene dentro un armadio)

E poi, caro amico, abbandonati all’abbraccio dell’Incerto: non c’e’ nulla più ricco di promesse.