Embracing a donkey on the Magredi steppe, combating illegal fishing in the Mediterranean. The stories of the planet's defenders land on Infinity.
"Green Storytellers. Alla scoperta di chi ha deciso di cambiare il Pianeta" is a TV series dedicated to the environment, born from the ground up and now available on Infinity thanks to the Infinity lab grant.
Eight twenty-minute episodes, suitable for watching with children too, to sail the waves of the Mediterranean alongside Sea Shepherd volunteers hunting down illegal fishing systems; go trekking on the Friulian steppe guided by the slow pace of donkeys; discover the importance of the ancient trade of the rag sorter in the regeneration of fabrics, and much more besides.
After an idea that took shape in the midst of the pandemic, the project by directors and authors Marco Cortesi and Mara Moschini came to fruition thanks to the support of more than 300 donors in a crowdfunding campaign launched on the platform Produzioni dal basso.
"This is first and foremost a TV series that the people wanted; Infinity's contribution allowed us to give greater quality to the final product," explains Marco Cortesi. "In fact, the idea itself was born from people. During lockdown, for the international project SeeEUtomorrow (a sort of database to document visions of the post-pandemic future) we collected 150 interviews with men and women from every part of the world. In each one there was a constant: the awareness that we need to change our relationship with the planet, and this pushed us to act. We put our professional skills at the service of telling the tenacity, motivations and passion of those who have chosen to change course, recognising the problems that are driving us towards collapse and putting in place participatory solutions, in which each one of us can make a contribution."
Focusing on true priorities — those aligned with values — and going against the forecasts dictated by marketing logic was the choice made by Guido Trevisan who, together with his colleagues Davide, Sirio and Stefano, decided to keep open the Rifugio Pian dei Fiacconi, at the foot of the Marmolada, at an altitude of 2,626 metres, despite the closure of the ski lifts in 2019.
One of the Green Storytellers episodes is dedicated to the queen of the Dolomites, to the valley glacier that in just over ten years has shrunk by 30 per cent due to climate change, and to the people who have devoted their lives to building a respectful and sustainable balance with the mountain.
"The only way to reach the refuge was with a three-hour walk, but people had never stopped coming," Cortesi recounts. "The managers' gamble had paid off. Unfortunately, however, last December, after filming, an avalanche swept away and destroyed this historic refuge." A fundraising campaign has been launched to rebuild it; the target is high, but at least as high as the desire to start again.
Stepping away from the daily frenzy and crossing the evocative landscape of the Magredi steppe in Friuli, with its 10,000 hectares, three donkeys setting the pace and a boundless horizon. Another stop on Green Storytellers takes viewers to experience slow tourism with Alfio Scandurra and his extraordinary animals — extraordinary in everything, including their hugs.
Another ode to slowness and sustainable mobility is the story of Linda Maggiori and Giovanni Angeli, a near-zero-impact green family who, for around ten years, have said goodbye to the car, choosing to get around exclusively by bike or public transport, to the delight of their four children.
Directors Cortesi and Moschini then spent a week with the Sea Shepherd crew aboard the Conrad, working to combat illegal Fads (Fishing Aggregating Devices) in the Mediterranean. A phenomenon as widespread as it is devastating that, in addition to destroying the marine ecosystem, results in the abandonment at sea of toxic materials and tonnes of plastic.
To meet those who have made the collection of abandoned plastic their cause, the Green Storytellers authors spent a working day with volunteers from the association Plastic Free, founded only in 2019, but already highly active across the entire national territory.
Fast fashion — disposable clothing — is responsible for 10 per cent of global pollution. Countering this alarming figure is the use of regenerated fabric which, by contrast, is capable of reducing environmental impact by 90 per cent. Mara Moschini takes us to meet Rifò, the young Prato-based brand that has focused on green fashion starting from regenerated and regenerable fabric made from jeans, wool and cashmere.
Other little-known protagonists of this virtuous circular economy are the rag sorters who, seated on the floor surrounded by scraps of fabric, draw on their incredible wealth of experience to sort them by weight, composition and colour. It is thanks to this profession — with its very ancient origins and irreplaceable by any machine — that the composition, and therefore the quality, of regenerated fabric can be guaranteed one hundred per cent.
Another stop in the TV series takes us to discover the work of the Rete dei semi rurali in Florence and its commitment to protecting biodiversity. Intensive agriculture, characterised by monocultures and the use of pesticides, has caused the loss of a third of arable land over the past forty years.
Data presented by Slow Food reports that "today 75 per cent of food produced for human consumption comes from just twelve plant species and five animal species" and that "the loss of diversified food sources — our food security — reduces human resilience and the ability to cope with change, including climate change."
The commitment of the Rete dei semi rurali and the thirty associations affiliated with it is to reverse course, sending an SOS to the other side of the world as well. It is in fact thanks to collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute, based in Southeast Asia, that 250 different rice varieties — catalogued as Italian in origin but long since vanished from Italy — have been brought back home.
Coming together to create fizzy drinks with the distinctive flavours of the local area is the community-building model devised by the Comunità frizzante of Vallagarina, in Trentino. "Ciacola", the alternative cola made with coriander and lavender exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, "Most-oh!" made with elderflowers from the valley, and "Abbracciata" made with the pulp of oranges from Sos Rosarno — which works against the exploitation of migrant workers — are the three products currently on sale, with the proceeds reinvested in other socially driven projects.
"Coming into contact with and finding so many realities active across the country in defence of the environment was a genuine injection of optimism," admits Cortesi. "Now, though, it's up to each one of us. We have no more excuses." The experiential journey of Green Storytellers can be summed up in one line, from Fulvio Stocchi of the farm "Una garlanda": "If you go against nature, nature is always right." It's only a matter of time.