GLI UOMINI DELLA LUCE - MEN OF LIGHT

by Katia Bernardi
52’, Italy, 2011

In the 1950s, the largest industrial engineering projects and some of the most famous Italian directors met for an appointment with history at the top of the mountains and along the rivers of the Trentino region. Against the background of the construction of the great hydroelectric plants, the “men of light”, that is those who were creating those monumental power plants, become the protagonists in the work of other “men of light”, the directors and cameramen ready to immortalize that historic moment in those places. This documentary covers more than half a century of history along with testimony from those who lived through this remarkable period of human and engineering feats; these same people were also protagonists in the documentaries of the period made by such directors as Ermanno Olmi, Dino Risi and Angio Zane. After more than fifty years, they return today amongst the dams and power plants that they helped build and to the sites of the film productions set there and in which they became accidental actors. Their voices meet images of the period films, in a voyage of recollections of energy, work, environment and cinema.
 

	Katia Bernardi Katia Bernardi was born in Trento in 1973. After earning a degree in Film History from the DAMS in Bologna, she worked for several production companies in Rome and Milan and as a television director. In 2004, with Rodolfo Concer she founded the production company KR Movie, in Trento. She has written and directed numerous documentaries, reportage and television series.