	MAN AND STONE ON THE ISLAND OF FILICUDI
	MAN AND STONE ON THE ISLAND OF FILICUDI

(Filicudi, Italy)
Duration: 28 minutes
Year of Production: 2005
Distribution: RAIEDUCATIONAL
Format: Dvcam
Director: Santi Minasi
Director of Photography: Mauro Marchetti
Editing: Roberta Cruciani
Production Director: Michela Morano

In the documentary the voices of the island of Filicudi recount the stories of 'master' stone workers, builders of dry-stone walls, roads and stairways in stone, famous for their mastery in making millstones, fundamental to the economy of Filicudi and the other Aeolian islands. Sculptors, masters, artists, speak about the relationship with 'their' stone on an island completely composed of stone. Stone that, notwithstanding erosion and earthquakes, 'has been' Filicudi for millennia and remains central to life on the island, as the legacy of their techniques remain central. That legacy, transferred from the hands of the masters seems to be transformed in the hands of the population of sculptors and artists that live on Filicudi today, and that from this tradition seem to have found a treasure. They are figures through which a legacy of mythic or realistic stories is constructed, like that of Saro Taranto, master-philosopher, immortalized in the story "Le Pietre di Mulino (Mill Stones)" of Elio Zagami: "He was so skilled, had such a profound knowledge of stone, that in all the islands where for any reason there was a need for work, for the construction of roads or houses, they always decided to call him [...] For example during the years when they made the stairways, a true architectural gem, he was called just for the work of splitting the stone with a long irons, enormous rocks, boulders practically, and of forming the said angular stones that had to be made into the edges of the stairs". In the memories of the inhabitants, "Mastro Saro" is one of the greatest builders of the millstones, at one time produced for all the needs of the entire Aeolian Islands; today some of these stones are conserved at Capo Graziano in the place where "Mastro Saro" worked. The documentary also tells the stories of "indigenous" artists and sculptors, connected with the local tradition of working with stone, and of the "adopted" artists, captivated by the island only to remain here, like Francesco Pessina, Milanese sculptor, who when he is not exhibiting in Italy or abroad, returns and works on "his" island.