From mother to daugther – the movie is back! We have two previews on our schedule. FF (a representation) and the Mondine di Novi choir (full lineup) will participate in both.

Saturday 16th at 6.00 p.m. we’ll be at Cineteca di Milano (Spazio Oberdan). The entrance is free, but you need to reserve (+39 346.95.82.555). Thursday 28th at 8.00 p.m. we’ll be at Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Paris. Everyone is invited, we’ll celebrate together the small miracle of being there and remembering, yet again.

I will spend Women’s Day with my dear mondine. Not to be missed, for sure: the Bergamo Film Meeting presents From mother to daughter – The movie; the Choir of Novi will be there; and, obviously, the ladies will sing – preventing them to do so would be impossible! At the Auditorium of piazza della Libertà 2, 5.15 p.m. of Sunday, March 8th.

“The Mondine choir blows Torino Film Festival away”. You’re telling me, buddy. I was close to tears, again.

So, nice, I can’t wait to see the Mondine again (not to mention Fiamma Fumana, now resting after the American tour)! And the occasion is really mellow, just a party really, the film is done. We only need to walk the red carpet, then off to a dinner with some red Lambrusco. Meanwhile, Davide and Andrea sent me this beautiful “Mondine – Di madre in figlia” trailer.

Repubblica.it, the most important Italian information website, devotes a special to the From mother to daughter project. Good pics, good videos, good vibes. The current version, we think, gets too personalistic on me, but we wrote to our friend Carlotta, the author of the piece, to edit it out. There are also a few minor factual mistakes: of course I am not in Modena City Ramblers anymore, this project is branded Fiamma Fumana!

So, we have a date for the European première of Mondine – From mother to daughter, the documentary movie starring Fiamma Fumana and the Mondine di Novi Choir (I already wrote about the world première in Toronto). We’ll be guests of Torino Film Festival; the show is scheduled for November 26th at 4.00 pm at Theater 1 of Cinema Massimo, in Via Verdi 18. We’ll be there. Mondine will be there. The director and producer will be there. Will you?

So, it seems that “Mondine – From mother to daughter”, the film on mondine di Novi I originally proposed to the team Ferrario (producer) – Zambelli (director), has gone down well in Toronto. Of course I am pleased with the attention of the media, from La Stampa (“pride and joy of living”), to Repubblica (“standing ovation”), to Corriere Canadese (“unanimous and unconditional applause of both critics and audience”). But what really will stay with me is the overwhelming emotion of many Canadians and Italian Canadians present, like Maurizio, who tracked on this blog to leave me this comment, or the sweet lady Giselle who burst into tears at the end of the film and wanted to write a long letter of thanks to us all:

Your film made me understand that my mother was not alone when se had to leave her family and the Como lake to emigrate, to work. You were there with her.. and this makes me feel less lonely.

Sometimes this job is really, really great

Andrea Zambelli, director of Mondine – From mother to daughter, is in Toronto for the film’s world première. I just got this email from producer Davide Ferrario. I translated and copied it below, I am too overwhelmed to add anything.

Zambe tells me that the first show was sold out (300 people). No one left. We had two applauses during the movie, and tears and enthusiasm at the end.
“I didn’t expect such an emotional reaction”, said the director…
A long debate with many questions followed. To be fair, half the audience consisted of Italian Canadians, but their heritage was not necessarily the only reason for them to like it.
Filmitalia people were also deeply moved, they send many congratulations. All in all, we all deserve them. Tonight second show for the general public. Tomorrow I’ll speak with Andrea again.

Davide

Davide Ferrario and Andrea Zambelli, producer and director of “Mondine – From mother to daughter” (the documentary about Mondine di Novi and Fiamma Fumana. I write about this here and here) have decided to move the film premiere from the spring to the Fall 2008. And for a very good reason: there is a lot of very high quality footage, they need extra time to edit it and make a wonderful film, that will make people laugh and cry. So we decided to reform and relaunch the project’s blog: also, we will do several things with the Novi choir from here to the Fall. We have a new domain (mondine.it) and a new group, with my old friend Valeria Carletti as the main blogger and a more recent friend, Freddy Mascheretti, to take care of the relevant technology. We have a guru too, Luca “Vanz” Vanzella of Daimon and Maestrini per caso: he has been so kind as to give us some good advice over dinner (Eritrean restaurant), but of course he bears no responsibility over our modest, utterly unprofessional blogging efforts. And good luck to us! You can find the new blog here./

Shooting for the Mondine movie is officially finished: we have been editing since September. For now, Zambe the director has put together this showreel, which contains footage (and audio) from the Detroit show cut with clips shot in various other occasions (at Arezzo on May 1st, in Detroit, on the rice paddies) and vintage repertoire material. It was really emotional to watch it… I can’t wait for the film to be finished.