if you happen to love this planet, you'll love this film!
Lots of nice coverage
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Our crowdfunding campaign not only allowed us to raise $20,000 in private donations; it also helped us garner the attention of a number of people and organizations interested in the topic of creating harmony between people and their “place”.
Some people call this topic “placemaking“. It’s an intersection between urbanism, sociology, environmentalism, sustainability and civic engagement. Professionals who are active in this realm seem genuinely intrigued that we’re making a film that touches upon many of the topics that they wrestle with on a daily basis.
Several authoritative voices within the “placemaking” community interviewed us and covered our film in their respective social media venues. Here’s a sampling of some of the really nice coverage we’ve received in the past month or two:
piece by Chuck Wolfe (MyUrbanist) that appeared in TheAtlantic.com
piece by Kaid Benfield that appeared on his NRDC Switchboard blog (and subsequently picked up by AtlanticCities)
podcast on Place Matters radio show, hosted by Dr. Katherine Loflin
We raised $20,000 through private donations to fund editing
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We’ve been working for over two years on an unfunded basis and realized during the summer of 2011 that we’d gotten to the point in which we couldn’t continue work on the film without outside help. Because of this we decided to stop work on the film itself and concentrate on fundraising efforts on several different fronts. As a part of our overall efforts, we decided to try our hand at running a crowdfunding campaign, a way that an increasing number of independent films fund a portion of their budget by seeking contributions from private donors.
During the last few months of 2011 we ran a campaign on crowdfunding site IndieGoGo with the goal of raising at least $20,000. This would have allowed us to carry out several weeks of concentrated editing work plus defray some of our production costs, which up until now we the creative team have been paying out of our pockets. The campaign ended on December 31, 2011, and thanks to the generosity of 129 donors we managed to meet our really ambitious goal and raised $20, 581. This means that we’ll soon be back in the editing room, working on distilling our 4000 minutes of footage into a 90-minute film.
We’re absolutely delighted with how the campaign went and also delighted that it’s over. It was an incredibly time-consuming and all-around challenging experience, but also gratifying on many levels. Besides the much-needed funds it allow us to raise, it also helped us expand our reach. We’re in touch with a growing number of people and organizations interested in what we’re doing and who feel an affinity for the messages we’d like to spread via our film.
We’re more grateful than we can say to the donors who believe in what we’re doing enough to support our work.
The campaign page is chock-full of information and hyperlinks to video clips or other social media sites, so if you’d like to know more about our film-in-the-making, you might want to check it out here.
Jeremy Irons sui posti speciali
ago 9
While visiting Cortona last week, Jeremy Irons was kind enough to share with us his thoughts on why places of beauty tend to disappear and what we can do to save them.
Together we can do a great deal:
Jeremy Irons pinpoints our constant desire for new things and our economic game in which profits prevail over beauty as main threats to special places. Often we’re made to feel disenfranchised and yet, if we’d like, we can protect the places we care about. He says that we as individuals, either separately or banding together in groups, have more power than we realize.
For Jeremy, places do not necessarily need to grow to survive. Rather they need to breathe, be nurtured so they can mature and become wise, just like people. For those of us who would like to care for places we love, the first step is to listen very deeply. By doing so, we will understand the needs of that particular place.
By clicking here, you’ll see a miniclip from the interview. http://youtu.be/0lVPRHYycmk
You’ll see more in the finished film!
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Se l’Italia distrugge la sua bellezza
feb 11
Un nuovo libro dà attualità scottante ai temi trattati da “The Genius of a Place”. In “Vandali” Sergio Rizzo e Gian Antonio Stella raccontano come l’Italia sta distruggendo la sua risorsa più preziosa: il patrimonio culturale.
L’Italia ha l’onore e l’onere di detenere un patrimonio gigantesco da conservare, valorizzare e condividere con altri. Il patrimonio culturale è il petrolio dell’Italia. Sarebbe miope a livello non solo culturale, ma anche economico, non prendere cura minuziosa di questa risorsa cruciale al benessere del Paese.
Per leggere un articolo dal Corriere, clicca qui:
http://www.corriere.it/cronache/11_febbraio_11/stella-italia-distrugge-bellezza-turismo-rizzo_8abd5e3c-35a6-11e0-9a90-00144f486ba6.shtml
“The Genius of a Place” offre un antidoto a questa tendenza, uno in cui le persone si interrogano e trovano dei modi piccoli ma concreti per diventare custodi del luogo di bellezza in cui si trovano. Questo si applica non solo a Cortona o all’Italia, ma a luoghi in ogni angolo del nostro pianeta meraviglioso ma anche fragile.
(English) Mixed blessings of development
dic 15
Ci spiace, ma questo articolo è disponibile soltanto in English.
Il “Genius” includerà un’intervista con Jovanotti
set 6
Sabato 4 settembre Sarah ha intervistato il celeberrimo cantautore Lorenzo “Jovanotti” Cherubini. Come molti sanno, Lorenzo è particolarmente sensibile a temi sociali. Per di più, lui viene da Cortona. Pensiamo che le sue riflessioni, le quali abbiamo trovato straordinariamente attinenti e considerate, aggiungeranno un bel tocco alle decine di altre interviste che abbiamo svolto per realizzare The Genius of a Place.
(English) The Genius Goes to Bocconi
mar 23
Ci spiace, ma questo articolo è disponibile soltanto in English.
The Genius of a Place – Intervista di Park City TV durante il Sundance
feb 12
*Video:the genius of a place – trailer
Intervista sottotitolata in ITALIANO.
Il 28 Gennaio 2010 Max, Sarah e Andrea sono stati intervistati da Park City TV, durante il Sundance Film Festival.
Questa è stata un’ottima opportunità per parlare di The Genius of a Place. Abbiamo spiegato perché pensiamo che il turismo possa minacciare la vera essenza di certe comunità, come ad esempio Cortona, un piccolo paesino collinare Toscano che stiamo utilizzando come principale soggetto.
Una volta che vengono conosciuti dal grande pubblico turistico, luoghi come Cortona rischiano di divenire vittime del loro stesso successo. Possono perdere il loro fascino e le loro risorse possono essere messe a dura prova.
Dal momento che vorremo evitare questo, The Genius of a Place incoraggerà i residenti e i visitatori a divenire più protettivi nei riguardo dei luoghi che amano.
In questo modo, speriamo possano raggiungere un equilibrio tra sviluppo e conservazione, piuttosto che permettere uno sconsiderato processo di “turistificazione”, degradando le risorse culturali o naturali del luogo.
Come si dice, prevenire è meglio che curare…
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Mountain Morning Show – Sundance Edition
Park City, Utah (location principale del Sundance Film Festival)
Si ringrazia Park City TV per aver gentilmente concesso le immagini.
Turismo e Venezia
dic 15
The New York Times published an article on Venice’s challenges in dealing with such a large influx of tourists.
Residents are divided over differing visions for the city and debate about how to balance the free market economy and democratization of tourism with a sense of local identity in the world’s most fragile city. Read the article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/world/europe/15venice.html?_r=1
