Docudramas and archeofictions

What I’m interested in since my second year of excavation in Vignale (LI, Italy) has been the communication of our work of archaeologists on the field to the people who doesn’t know the site.

Since 2008, I began to record some footages with the help of the archaeologists who I work with, based on several themes of research and points of view that interests the excavation of the mansio of Vignale. More precisely they can defined as docudrama, a sort of a movie genre that merges documentary and fiction, through the realistic reproduction of really happened events.

I wrote the script and I take care of the direction. I chose the more known themes and I tried to explain these by building around it a story with historically attested characters  or, whether not possible, invented but historically plausible ones.

In this way the narrative and comunicative frame helps the public to understand in a more involving and easier way the theme I want to highlight and in the same way helps us as archaeologists to built a better understanding of the past we are studying.

Here it is an example, maybe my best one docudrama directed at Vignale: it is entitled “Passaggi a Vignale”, that can be translated into “Passages at Vignale”. The theme chosen reflects the fact that Vignale has always been a place where people doesn’t stop. They go on their ways, they look at the landscape but they are not so interested in stopping to stay in Vignale for a while. This has happened since the Antiquity. In the Roman times, a mansio was built along the Aurelia, that passed and still passes today in its modern version near the site. The Roman street attracts some investments like the production of tiles and the building of the mansio itself. Unfortunately this were isolated events. In the 19th century only peasantry under the control of a big landowner lived at Vignale and anyone was interested in investing on here. Ιn our days, also some public services like trains and buses don’t stop at Vignale very frequently. Only people interested in our excavation today stop at Vignale to ask us about the site…

As soon as possible I add English subtitles to the video.