In the early 1970s, two Italian filmmakers met pregnant, 16-year-old Anna, a junky, on the Piazza Navone in Rome. One of them took her under his wing, partly out of pity, partly due to opportunism - thinking ‘there’s a great film in this’. They film her slow recovery from feral homeless person to human being, initially using a film camera and later on video - which, at the time, was a novelty. Alberto Grifi turned the 11 hours of material shot by the duo into a four-hour film and transferred the video onto 16mm film.
Anna is more than cinema vérité, it is a reflection on the camera’s role in documentary filmmaking whereby the crew also have their say. The long takes create a fascinating portrait of the dynamic between filmmaker and subject, and the work also documents a society very similar to today’s - rife with political and social discontent.
Anna was recently restored by film lab L'Immagine Ritrovata and can now be seen with subtitles outside Italy for the first time.


Directors
Alberto Grifi, Massimo Sarchielli
Country of production
Italy
Year
1975
Festival Edition
IFFR 2012
Length
225'
Medium
DCP
Language
Italian
Producers
Alberto Grifi, Massimo Sarchielli
Sales
Cineteca Nazionale
Screenplay
Massimo Sarchielli, Roland Knauss
Cinematography
Alberto Grifi, Mario Gianni, Raoul Calabrò
Production Design
Massimo Sarchielli, Alberto Grifi
Sound Design
Raoul Calabrò, Agostini, Ponchia
Cast
Massimo Sarchielli, Vincenzo Mazza
Website
http://www.albertogrifi.com
Directors
Alberto Grifi, Massimo Sarchielli
Country of production
Italy
Year
1975
Festival Edition
IFFR 2012
Length
225'
Medium
DCP
Language
Italian
Producers
Alberto Grifi, Massimo Sarchielli
Sales
Cineteca Nazionale
Screenplay
Massimo Sarchielli, Roland Knauss
Cinematography
Alberto Grifi, Mario Gianni, Raoul Calabrò
Production Design
Massimo Sarchielli, Alberto Grifi
Sound Design
Raoul Calabrò, Agostini, Ponchia
Cast
Massimo Sarchielli, Vincenzo Mazza
Website
http://www.albertogrifi.com