Projection Docufilm “A Dream of Water and Fire” by Marco Bruciati

In 2025 Effetto Venezia celebrates its fortieth anniversary. To commemorate the occasion, Fondazione LEM and the Municipality of Livorno have decided to entrust Marco Bruciati – director and artistic director of the event in 2023 – with the production of a documentary film that traces the history of the main summer event in Livorno. This gave rise to “A dream of water and fire”, the first part of a larger story dedicated to the history of the event inaugurated in Livorno in 1985.

The proposed journey, through the evolution of the “Effetto Venezia phenomenon”, restores, through audiovisual documentation, the memory of the territory, in order to understand the changes in the social, cultural, urban and economic dynamics of the city over these four decades.

The first step of the narrative focused on the period from 1985 to the early 2000s, reconstructing the genesis, growth and turning point in 1996 with the show of the Els Comedians Company, also focusing on the urban dynamics that in 1975 allowed for the preservation of the historic district. The narrative choice, in this specific segment, benefited from the direct testimony of people who experienced the history of Effetto Venezia from within: former municipal employees, women and men from the neighborhood, technicians, cultural operators and some institutional figures. Their voices were joined by archival images found at the tourist office of the Municipality of Livorno and in some private funds (Coop and Franco Bocci). The images, in VHS format typical of the 90s, have been digitized and archived by the association 8mmezzo.

In the second part, dedicated to the 2000s, “A dream of water and fire” will mainly focus on the components of cultural and commercial operators with particular reference to the artistic directions that have succeeded over the years.

Speakers: Mauro Zucchelli, Antonio Picchianti, Lorena Marconi, Paolo Morelli, Paolo Demi, Carla Zamboni, Maria Grazia Lodde, Gianfranco Conti, Claudio Filippelli, Massimo Tamalio, Stefania Politi, Chico De Maio, Luca Fiordi, Monica Ria, Maurizio Paolini, Emiliano Fanelli, Luca Salvetti.

Directed by Marco Bruciati. Camera operators: Luca Bardi, Federico Anglano, Lorenzo Pari, Jacopo Torriti, Matilde Balzano. Location sound: Veronica Demelas. Editing: Marco Bruciati. Post-Production: Luca Bardi. 90s interviews: Franco Bocci. Contemporary interviews: Phrones.