attempting to escape death by dancing (2026)

Titled di come i vivi tentarono, danzando, di sottrarsi alla morte, this boundary-pushing experimental documentary investigates how historic folk movements across southern Italy functioned as communal defenses against mortality. Through deliberate digital erosion that slowly fractures vintage footage, paired with a dissonant and haunting audio design, the project intertwines Elias Canetti’s philosophical defiance of death with Ernesto de Martino’s groundbreaking research into ritual magic and fractured consciousness. In this immersive cinematic experience, rhythmic physical expression evolves into a ceremonial gesture aimed at halting time’s relentless progression—a steadfast, yet inevitably temporary, uprising against the fading of human existence.