The
ANNOTICO Report
Sabina
Guzzanti,
is an Italian actress and director, was one of just six movie industry guests
lecturing during the free filmmaker panel titled Dangerous Docs.
Guzzanti made just one
episode of her comedy program "RaiOt"
before it was cancelled. The show lampooned Italy's
billionaire prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Public
television officials, all with ties to Berlusconi, pulled Guzzanti's show amid intense political pressure.
Guzzanti's response was to make "Viva Zapatero!" a side-splitting and poignant look at
media censorship in Italy.
Festival founder
Michael Moore called her "a
kindred spirit" and was at her side, when the cheery Italian
actress fielded questions following the screening of her movie.
People consider Guzzanti a comedienne, but she considers herself in
these two films a "satirical documentarian."
One of Sabina's more striking comments: While
half of the people of Italy like Berlusconi, or at least share his vision
of the world ... which is very disturbing to Sabina).....NO ONE in Italy likes Bush because of the War in Iraq and the US
inaction in Lebanon and Palestine. Americans in
general are also not so popular in Italy at this moment, because of
the perception of Americans support of Bush Policies.
Q&A .. with Sabina Guzzanti
Record
Eagle
Traverse City , Northern
Michigan
By Bob Darrow
Record-Eagle staff writer
August 4, 2006
Sabina Guzzanti
made exactly one episode of her comedy program "RaiOt" before it was
cancelled. The show lampooned Italy's billionaire prime minister Silvio
Berlusconi, a media mogul turned politician who had almost total control over
the country's TV networks. Public
television officials, all with ties to Berlusconi, pulled Guzzanti's show amid intense political pressure.
Guzzanti's response was to make "Viva Zapatero!" a side-splitting and poignant look at
media censorship in Italy.
With festival
founder Michael Moore who called
her "a kindred spirit" at
her side, the jet-lagged but cheery Italian actress fielded questions at the
State Theatre Wednesday night following a screening of her movie.
After resting up
at a local hotel, she spoke with Record-Eagle staff writer Bob Darrow on
Thursday afternoon.
Record-Eagle: I have a complaint. You're supposed to be a comedienne, but I saw your
movie last night and it made me very sad. Was that intentional?
Sabina Guzzanti: I think there is both
flavors in the movie. To make people laugh doesn't
mean to make people happy. Happy is different. When you do satire, what you do
is to awaken a sense of criticism in people. To make people do some questions
that they didn't think about before.
The job of a satirist is not to make people happy. I don't
think a comedian or a satirist or simply someone that works in cinema should
have as their first mission to entertain people. I think to entertain is just
the opposite of what we should do ... to entertain makes me think just like a drug to forget about who you are and the world
in which you live, which is just the opposite of what I think an artist or
comedian or anyone who works in communication should do.
RE: One of the arguments
Italian officials made for cancelling "RiaOt"
was that it didn't qualify as
satire. I didn't think "Viva Zapatero!" was a satire. Has anyone told you that
before?
SG: Well, "Viva Zapatero!" is a documentary, so it's not supposed to be. I think I called it a
"satirical documentary," because what I think it is a documentary that, in fact, make you think and make you
laugh at the same time. For sure, it's
not a journalistic documentary because it's
not objective point of view. And it's
openly not objective because I tell my story like a diary of what is happening
and I do my consideration about what is happening. I share my consideration
with people that agree or disagree with me, but it's
a reflection about the issue. One of the main subjects of the movie is about
what satire is, and as what I just said before, I don't
think satire should be something that entertains people, or just make you laugh
... It's a genre that can contain
many different things ... In the history of satirists you can have parodies,
you can have fun and you can also be very angry when you are a satirist. Like,
have a political speech. And this is what sat! ire has
been from the very beginning ... Satire, mainly, is an independent point of
view, which is not the power point of view, which is not the rich point of
view. It is another one, it is an independent point of view from a person that
speaks just because of the pleasure to speak and because you believe that
dialogue and to think about subjects can make things better.
RE: Last night, Michael Moore
said he thinks satirists are the most dangerous kind of artists. Do you ever
think of yourself as being dangerous?
SG: Not really, in fact I was
very surprised to be considered dangerous. I think it is a very big compliment.
They make you (dangerous), when they censor you, because means what you say is
important... Of course, I understood before that the obvious things that I was
going to say were obvious for everyone, but no one had the courage to say these
simple things. So I knew I was saying something that was prohibited to say.
RE: A lot of critics have
compared your style to Michael Moore's.
Was that something that at all had an influence on your coming to Traverse City?
SG: I think that the work of
Michael Moore not I think, I
experienced is very important to
everyone, because, as I said yesterday in the introduction, (Moore) was really someone that opened a door
and allowed many other people to follow the same path. I was thinking since some
years to make a documentary, but was something that was impossible to propose
to a producer... You always lose money when you do it, so it's always impossible to convince someone to put some
money on this. But of course the fact he did it, with these kind
of results, and it was something so important that affected, really, the people
he put the finger in a place in
which no one did, in such a powerful way. So of course he allowed me, for sure,
somehow to do what I did.
RE: Have you compared notes
with Mike at all on the best methods of chasing down politicians in the street?
SG: He was telling me he had
this problem that, of course, no one wants to talk to him, so he invents some tricks, by changing himself. I didn't have this problem when I was doing the
documentary because no one knows what a documentary is in Italy,
basically. And I was banned from television so these politicians that was
talking with me, they didn't think I
could use this interview.
RE: Silvio
Berlusconi, he seems like he's been
under attack from all sides. He lost the election in April, he's being investigated for fraud in Spain, he's at the
center of this Italian soccer controversy. Do you feel validated at all that he's now getting some of what he had coming to him?
SG: No, Berlusconi's still there. He's
still totally in power. He's totally
able, and he's doing to blackmail
the government. In fact, the (new) Italian government, one of the first laws
they did was to make free all the politicians corrupted, and most of them
belongs to the Berlusconi side, which is something totally unpopular, totally unjust ...
RE: So that means Berlusconi
still has a lot of power?
SG: Yes, he has lot of
political power, economical power, power over media everything.
RE: What's public opinion of him like right now in Italy?
SG: For the moment, what I feel, is everyone is relaxed, because they think we don't have this nightmare anymore. And also people that
voted for him, they were not so convinced anymore. In fact, he had to do an
electoral campaign very violent, using all kinds of tricks to convince people
from his side to go to vote, because otherwise people just wouldn't.
RE: This is a guy who's called himself "the Jesus Christ of politics" ...
SG: Yes, Napoleon,
everything. He said everything is possible to say.
RE: He named his party after
a soccer chant, a football chant. The guy sounds like he's
a borderline nutcase to me.
SG: Nutcase? What mean?
RE: Is he crazy?
SG: I think so. I think he's quite insane.
RE: From what I've read, relations between Berlusconi and our
president, George Bush, have been pretty friendly. What do people think of
George Bush in Italy?
SG: Italy now is very divided. You get like half of people that, basically,
like Berlusconi, or at least share his vision of the
world ... but I think no one likes Bush, because Americans are not so popular
at this moment.
RE: Americans in general?
SG: Americans in general,
because of Bush especially, for sure. Because of the war and
because of Bush...
RE: How long did it take you
to make "Viva Zapatero!" ... from the time
you had the idea to the time you got it finished and were ready to show it?
SG: Including the editing,
one year, one year and a half.
RE: At any time in this
process, did you ever question yourself? Did you ever think, "maybe all these people are right and maybe I crossed the
line?"
SG: Yes, I did... Sometime I
thought this. When you're attacked
from all the sides, I thought "maybe I'm
right, maybe I'm not, this is not
satire, maybe I'm
not funny." To talk with the people I made the interview to was very helpful to understand better what satire is and
what is the social function of satire, what other satirists do. For example,
they make me feel very very nasty, very very aggressive, and when I see what they do in other
countries not all the countries,
because there are countries in which satire doesn't
exist, like Denmark or Norway ... But
in the countries where satire existed it was much more
aggressive than mine.
RE: Is the problem of
censorship of the media in Italy
something that's on the public
consciousness? Does the public really care about it or are they more interested
in soccer matches?
SG: A lot of people is
(concerned), but it's difficult to
have an independent point of view from what the media talk about ... People in Italy, and I guess also here in U.S., they are
not aware that television is something made up by human beings. They think
television and reality is the same thing. That what television says must be
truth. That what they read in newspapers is not the political decision but is
just the simple truth. This is the reason for which I think satire is very
important, because it makes you think about these things...
RE: I keep reading about all
the standing ovations you get at screenings of this movie. You got two more
last night. I timed them about five
minutes of standing ovations. Obviously, you've
struck a chord with people.
SG: What mean, struck a
chord?
RE: You've
connected with people, people are relating to your message. Are you finding
that?
SG: Yes ... I notice that
this movie has the power to create a big emotion, a big connection with people,
because of the subject...
RE: Do you feel like other
people are frustrated with this issue?
SG: I think so. I think that
people may not think about this issue all the time, because all society brings
you to think something else. But I think that freedom is the most precious
thing that a human being has...
RE: You traveled all over Europe making this movie. Did you find that this erosion
of freedom is something that's
happening around Europe, or is this a uniquely
Italian problem?
SG: No, I think it's happening everywhere. I think it's happening, basically, in the United States ... We
have always been the country that, more than others, follow United States
trend. Also in Britain
after 9/11, they experienced a lot less freedom of information ... Television
became something boring because you can't
say anything. There's less satire.
It's true, there is
these important satirists in France
and England,
but it's very difficult for young
satirists to have a space. It's not
like it used to be at all.
RE: Do you expect the Italian
media to regain any freedom under the new prime minister,
Romano Prodi?
SG: I don't know. It's
very difficult to predict, obviously, because it's
a very weak government, it's very
divided inside of itself ... I think something a little better will happen, at
least formally, because they, for sure, are obliged. For example, one of the
journalists that had been fired will be back on television,
(Michele) Santoro ... To see something different on television will bring some
change. Some other journalists will take courage. We made a law proposal to
make a reform of television, and the government will discuss this law proposal.
So some possibilities of change, there are.
RE: In America, there's a growing distrust of the media, and I think as
citizens we take our freedom to criticize our government for granted for the
most part. Is that something that you see in Italy, too?
SG: Yes, it's something you see. The problem is always is that
there is part of the population which is more aware, more educated, that goes
to the cinema, goes to the theater or reads the newspaper. Because
a lot of the people doesn't read the
newspaper at all. Most of the people. Then
there is a part of the population that is completely cut from this way to
think. The problem is that the effects of this way to govern was to cut any
relation between the people that thinks and makes question and doesn't, so you don't
have any way to reach them.
RE: The people that think and
ask questions, are there many of them?
SG: I don't know, it's hard to say. For sure, it's
not the majority ...
RE: You said last night that
the censorship wasn't really an
issue in the April election. But in your movie you mention how all of these
popular journalists have been fired, basically to shut them up. How could the
public not be outraged by that?
SG: They are outraged. Well,
it's something happened like three
years ago, so it's difficult to keep
some subject on your mind. You forget about things. But I'm
sure people are concerned. But what you do when you are concerned, this is
another issue...
RE: How do you encourage
people to take action, to do something if they're
frustrated. How do you combat the apathy and ignorance
that's out there?
SG: Talking. To talk is very
important. When you go in a place in a city and you talk with people, something
happens, for sure. And then giving the example ... I don't
feel like a martyr, someone that has been crucified. I think everything, for
me, was at the end a very beautiful and exciting experience to do this. And I
think, for sure, someone will be inspired to do the same.
RE: Think you'll be back on Italian TV anytime soon?
SG: Mmmmm...
I don't think so! But I'll try.