Third edition of Stati Generali dello Spettacolo, promoted by Left Wing and Unita and curated by Annarita Masullo (cultural operator)closing on Saturday 8 November held at the Officina Pasolini room in Rome.
Over three days, the event brought together artists, workers, associations, business and institutional representatives in open discussions about the challenges and prospects of the Italian cultural system. States General of Entertainment, was born as a grassroots movement and over the years has become a veritable laboratory of collective ideashas maintained its nature as a space for participation, planning and proposals, built thanks to the voluntary commitment of the professional network in the sector.
The final day, which ended with a plenary session in the theater, provided a moment of review of the work and discussion between the various components of the sector. Artists, operators, institutional representatives and cultural businesses discussed the proposals that appeared in thematic tables, underlining the importance of joint agreements to develop a more equitable, sustainable and inclusive cultural policy.
Among the many interventions made was Dario Indelicato (Credit Credits): “Two years. This is the time that has passed and what you have just heard is an echo of the silence we suffer. We are at the ‘At the End Credits’ of a film we no longer want to star in, and we are here to present the voices and cries of the invisible backbone of Italian cinema: the precarious, disjointed and structural workers that make up our crew. Let’s say it right away: don’t call it a ‘crisis’; let’s call it ‘responsibility’. This paralysis is the direct and calculated result of evil and unfortunate choicesAnd”.
And again: “Dear politicians, these cuts are not a rescue. They are an act of cultural vandalism and a condemnation of uncertainty for tens of thousands of our families. Cinema is not a marginal expense; it is a strategic asset, a vital industry and, above all, a bastion of critical free thought in our country. We are and will be defiant to hegemonic desires whatever their color. Art is and should be free. The second crisis is a crisis of conscience in a sector that leaves us alone. You have made us a ghost category, with no institutional credibility and no national collective agreement since 1999! The problem is no longer the quantity of production operations. The reality is that the quality and sustainability of our work is facing structural collapse.”
“Quality collapses when human values are erased! – he continued – Cinema must build freedom of thought and liberate us by digging within with the necessary questions. Where does the need for stories go? Cinema must be uncomfortable. Intellectuals have a moral obligation to be critical, to oppose power and conformism. An artist must always feel uncomfortable. It’s time for a change of script. We see new horizons before us and we are ready to rebuild Italian cinema together, but the foundation must be solid: protecting workers, technicians and actors first and foremost. We must, we can, we want to return to making cinema that is worth your time, not something that only looks at income. If you really want to save cinema in Italy, it’s time for everyone to move on from the opening credits and definitively move on to the closing credits.”
Also an important speech from Tosca Donati (Officina delle Arti Pier Paolo Pasolini): “I think of music, the sector I know best: a world full of talent and energy, but often under the sway of precarity, loneliness and lack of protection. I believe that there are three things needed, especially education, recognition and networks. Education – because we need to teach the younger generation that music is not a hobby, but a language, a discipline, a job that requires study and respect. Recognition – because those who make music, those who write, those who teach, those who work behind the scenes must be protected like any other worker. AND clean – because you can’t change anything alone. We need to build bridges between artists, institutions, schools, theatre, radio, production centers, to give continuity and dignity to a system that today often lives by the exception rather than the rule.. So yes, State Entertainment Generals are welcome, if they serve to form a team, to share ideas and needs, to design a shared vision of the future. Because entertainment is not a luxury. It’s a form of thought.”
