Karen La Rosa from La Rosa Works Sicily Tours and Travel has two films, made through collaboration with friends and colleagues in Sicily, that have made it into the top 21 short list of the Palermo Short Film Festival. They will be screened before a jury panel during the first week of November along with the others selected. If they make the final cut they will be shown at the Cineteatro Lux di Palermo during an evening celebrating the winners.
The first piece, entitled Dreaming of Sicily is from the filmmaker, Mark Spano, who was behind the documentary Sicily: Land of Love and Strife. Edited during the pandemic, it is a contemplative and poignant reminder of Sicily.
The second video is called Pane. A Short Film About Bread and, surprisingly, was shot with zero budget.
As Karen told us, it was made with ‘creative thinking to bring a slice of Sicily’s past and present to the viewer’ and represents a cooperation between Giovanna Garbo and La Rosa Works.
The music featured in the video, ‘Rosa senza spina’, is from a group called Malanova, a project led by Pietro Mendola from Messina. They play new music in the style of traditional forms and were happy to provide the backing track for the Pane footage. Karen is particularly fond of this piece, which showcases their work and its haunting melodies.
As an illustration of other La Rosa Works videos, Karen has highlighted this piece showing the traditional art of cart decoration.
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