A recipe with an old story and deep roots revisited by a crew which bears a mixture of cultures and knowledges, where a migrant manpower and a land with its inhabitants' hospitality break down all possible walls...
The original concept is about a ready-made tomato sauce production with legally hired migrant manpower where the raw material is disconnected from the typical industrial production mentality.
The core feature is the cultural impact which derives from it.
Funky Tomato is not only a food production as it focuses on the creative resonances inherent in every agricultural practice. We decided to stimulate different aspects of the social structure by adding outer elements in a small village, which risked to become desert.
Therefore everyone is part of a wider "recipe":
Protagonists are the few inhabitants of Cersosimo who warmly welcomed the new lives and the different stories that they brought from far;
Protagonists are the three migrant people: Ibrahim Bara and Haruna Guene from Burkina Faso, and the Swedish Jett Johanssons, who help us to enlarge our vision through their perspective;
Protagonist is Federico Valicenti, 'foodosopher', chef and deep connoisseur of the land memory;
Protagonists are Charles Ferries and Ibrahim Drabo - an American ethnomusicologist and musician the former, musician and Burkinabé singer the latter – who took part with their music in narrating this story, together with two local musicians Vincenzo Camodeca and Vincenzo Valicenti.
The citizens, yet used to the “counting” each morning, welcomed with enthusiasm and curiosity the much interest given to their village: a village usually remembered “only on holidays” from those who left it. Could it be that they recognise in who's coming the son or the friend departed? After all, we are all children of migrations. Thus, the camera became a friendly tool, an instrument that gave voice and music to a place where once upon a time “the streams were full of water and people working and singing in them” as we are reminded by Federico Valicenti.
Italy, 2018 36'50" - Trailer
Credits:
Production: Ponte di Archimede Produzioni
Storyline: Funky Tomato
Featuring: Federico Valicenti, Ibrahim Drabo, Charles Ferries, Harouna Gouem, Ibrahim Bara, Jett Johansson, Antonio Armando Lo Prete, Carmine Caricati, Maria Bellino, Leonardo Riccardi, Vincenzo Di Sanso, Vincenzo Valicenti, Vincenzo Camodeca, Nicola Petrosino, Saverio Cuccaro, Francesco Cala’, Mario Solito
Francesco Valicenti
Camera: Giada Muci
Stage Photographer: Guido Acquaviva
Location Sound Recordist: Corrado Sabia
Editing: Zvi Joseph Tal
Photography and Direction: Giordano Acquaviva