The Sardegna Film Commission short films - Second: flora and fauna

We continue with the miniseries analyzing the Sardegna Film Commission animated short films announced last June. In the first article we talked about the theme of “history, archaeology and legends of Sardinia” with the short film “28 abrile 1794: sa die de sa Sardinia”, in this second chapter the theme is “flora and fauna”.

Theme: flora and fauna

“Pensaci”

The protagonist is young Martina, surrounded by Capo Teulada’s nature she will learn a very important lesson about the balance of human relationships. With a confirmed length of five minutes, the short film is directed by Peter Marcias, written by Marco Porru, animated by Giorgia Atzeni and produced by Capetown.

The animation technique that will be used is cut-out animation. This technique consists in using plane figures, for example parts of a collage, as animation frames. You can create an animated collage traditionally, capturing frames like in the stop-motion technique, or digitally, manipulating the collage with photo editing programs. Here is an example of collage with a more “traditional” look and an example of digital collage produced by Capetown itself, the short film “Strollica”.

Giorgia Atzeni is an illustrator and art historian, specialized in drawing, engraving and graphics. She works in the fields of editorial graphics, illustration, creative art laboratory activities and children education. She published her illustrations with several Italian publishers such as Salani, Il Castoro, Franco Cosimo Panini Editore and Giunti.

Here we have some examples of covers and illustrations, to give us an idea of the drawing style for the characters of the short film. 

Cover of the book "Mia e Pepe in Ogliastra"

Cover of the book "Danzando con l'arte"

Illustration of a dragon from Giorgia Atzeni's website

Peter Marcias directed many documentaries, commercials and short films presented at national and international festivals. His debut in cinemas was in 2006 with the co-operative movie Bambini produced by Gianluca Arcopinto’s company Pablo, for which he directed the episode “Sono Alice” that participated in more than a hundred international festivals such as Giffoni Film Festival, São Paulo International Film Festival and others.

Very present themes in Peter Marcias’ filmography are the protection and preservation of the environment, celebrating successful women and LGBT themes. In 2010 and 2013 he directed two documentaries about the director Liliana Cavani and the actress Piera degli Esposti: Liliana Cavani, una donna nel cinema and Tutte le storie di Piera. Combining his passion for animation and his social commitment, he wrote and directed his first animated short movie in 2012, Il mondo sopra la testa, that debuted successfully at the Torino GLBT Film Festival - Da Sodoma a Hollywood. The two following short films, Il mio cane si chiama Vento (2016) and Strollica (2017), were produced by Sardegna Film Commission and tackle the themes of environment and sustainability. 

Marco Porru is a writer for cinema. He worked on the script of the film I bambini della sua vita (2011), produced by Peter Marcias. His debut in the narrative field is the book L’eredità dei corpi, finalist at Premio Italo Calvino 2011.

Here I see a successful team that could highlight the themes and the beauty of Capo Teulada, the promontory in the municipality of Teulada which forms the extreme southern point of Sardinia, in the south west precisely. I’d like to conclude with a few images of the area of Capo Teulada, this way we can imagine together how they could look through this team’s imagination.

The next short film on the list is “Il volo di Aquilino”, about a distinguished Sardinian character, poet Aquilino Cannas, stay tuned!