LAIFAFEST 2004 BRINGING SALENTO TO HOLLYWOOD

A documentary by Giuliano Capani  "A RHYTHM FOR YOUR SOUL - TARANTISM AND NATURAL THERAPY" and "ITALIAN SUD EST" by Fluid Video Crew, will be presented at "The Sixth Annual Los Angeles Italian Film Awards" (LAIFAFEST 2004) which will be held on April 20-24, 2004, at the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood.

For schedule and showtime please check the LAIFA website http://www.laifafest.com by March 25.

"A RHYTHM FOR YOUR SOUL - TARANTISM AND NATURAL THERAPY" Tarantism is an ancient therapeutic ritual - its origins are unknown - which until the 1970s was still in practice in Salento, Italy.
It was studied by the famous anthropologist Ernesto De Martino.

Women who became unbalanced or who suffered from depression or hysteria healed themselves using sounds, colours and music. These women were called "Tarantate" because they had been bitten by an extremely poisonous spider commonly known as the "Taranta". They would dance for days on end, until they collapsed. This practice seems to have been based on the principle of bio-energy: where bodily stress creates a psychophysical imbalance which is then harmonised by a specific type of music with an insistent, frenzied rhythm.

Nowadays this practice no longer exists, but psycho-physical problems remain: what has happened to the "Tarantati" of the third millennium? In recent years the "Pizzica", a type of dance which stems from Tarantism, has been danced in piazzas all over Italy, a type of music therapy which still holds within it the energy necessary to dance in tune with the rhythms of life and to help people connect to others.


"ITALIAN SUD EST" is about Caterina's trip through Salento, the extreme Southern-Eastern Italy. She travels on a little train that runs by Sud-Est, the local railway that traverses the province of Lecce. Everyday she talks to a different person: a passenger, an engine driver or railway worker. She listens to stories, voices, memories, tales of nomadic tribes, saints and legends, also hearing accounts of injustice, deterioration and abandon. On a tape recorder she takes note of her experiences, acts like journalist. But she also dreams, and wonders about life.