Aqua Granda - documentary film by Emanuele Coppola

At 50 years after the flood Emanuele Coppola shows the hidden Venice: between thoughts of the inhabitants and still wild natural corners.

In the panorama of Italian documentaries, which sees few productions and even more scarce opportunities to show them, the new docu-Coppola's film illustrates with eye enchanted the heart of Venice by following a narrative result of two different approaches to reality, one more technical, l 'another documentary by nature. Coppola, in fact, is an engineer who for over thirty years has been filming the natural landscapes in Italy, producing dozens of documentaries on animals among the rarest of the Mediterranean and founded the first Italian agency nature photography.
Aqua Granda is the result of 10 years of work in the lagoon "in the shadows", investigating the inhabitants daily effort against high water and following their thoughts, worries and doubts. The story also covers the history of the work of the works of preservation, the sea walls of the nineteenth century to the latest memory breakwaters and Moses, with images in time-laps of the works of this great work. Many archival footage and home movies in 8 mm, with historical passages of the last 50 years of events related to the defense of the city, all enriched by photographs and testimonials. Venice Emanuele Coppola appears never stops, everything is always ready to defy nature, here also unveiled with images of the most hidden and unknown corners, using micro cameras shooting with remote control of the 'other' inhabitants of Venice, terns, avocets, oystercatchers sea, plovers, shown in close-ups in the various lagoons like the mud flats, salt marshes, light.

The result is a choral work that invites reflection on how man has managed over the centuries to live with the tides and floods from that terrible of 1966. A journey through humanity enclosed in this city suspended, a pot -pourri of people from the most different occupations, such as the bookseller, the sculptor, the restaurateur, the jeweler, musicians, researchers, engineers, fishermen. Water connects all, it is the boundary along which the documentary along with a music that in Aqua Granda often 'born' in the streets or in the concert halls. And 'always water, invading shops, houses and even permeates the soul of the people. Water is the element that carries the destiny of this city and it shapes the habits and memories. The documentary does not return any theory, only share the thoughts of this city also revealing the hidden sides of a domineering nature but wonderful.
"The staging of this documentary took shape over time, it was composed as she turned around. I had the privilege of living in this city for more than 10 years after we talk with many authentic Venetians of whom I admired his love for the city and the desire to resist through adversity. Venice reflects and is reflected, is still alive even if it risks a future of 'divertificio' for tourists. In my documentary Maria Teresa Zambon, the owner of a restaurant in Campo Santo Stefano, it is confident that it is the high waters to attract tourists today. I believe that the contradictions of this city are enclosed in this very sentence. Unfortunately, merchants and artisans have become almost rare species, almost as much as the ones I have followed naturally by my goal for more than 30 years. Aqua Granda I would launch a message of hope for Venice, still full of valuable human resources and that they should all listen. "

Emanuele Coppola

Passionate about nature, travel and photography since childhood. He traveled to all continents making photographic reports published in books and periodicals. He has made documentaries as director-operator of natural habitats and species of the rarest fauna of the Mediterranean, one of all the Mediterranean monk seal, which have received prizes and awards in Italy and abroad. With its strong passion for technology and technology in recent years it has developed the use of special naturalistic web-cam and built systems for filming in stereoscopic 3D augmented reality via a remote control.

Aqua Granda - duration 63 '
Production, script and direction: Emanuele Coppola