With about 40 hours of footage in hand, the next task is to start laying out and editing plan and of course start editing. I feel pretty happy with the material I have and am looking forward to months of post-production.

As I will progress with my edits, I will use this site to post short clips from the edits I will do.

Also, this is a very important week as I’m waiting to hear from the Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund regarding post-production funding. I’m crossing my fingers and I hope to hear good news!

These past two days have been interesting. It’s not difficult here to find trash because it’s literally everywhere. It is a little harder to find a fire – not a normal fire that we would expect but burning of what they call here “special waste”, which is not the normal waste a household produces but special items that require special ways of being disposed. The norm here has become to burn this special waste often composed of tires, televisions and other items. The smoke produced by this fire becomes highly toxic.

Yesterday, as we were driving on a main highway near Naples, we saw in the distance a black smoke. It was obvious that it wasn’t a normal fire. As we approached the fire, we stopped to film. For some reasons, the reality of this place hit me in a strange way. I felt disturbed by the view and the smell and honestly upset. I became more upset when I noticed people driving by as we were filming and looking at us filming with odd eyes as if we were the ones doing something strange and the fire was the norm.

It is in fact a sad reality. This has become a place where illegalities are now the norm and what is considered the norm is now viewed as strange and abnormal. If the government and organized crime are involved in this entire trash business, it is also impossible to exclude the common citizen from this mess – that same citizen who puts a tv or a set of tires on fire in the middle of cultivated land every single day. These frame grabs from the video shot yesterday indicate in my opinion how this place has become no man’s land. Sad but true.

A video frame grab of leachate coming from a site of ecoballe in the Triangle of Death area

Last week it’s been a productive week of filming. We spent time with a family of sheepherders who I’m hoping will become the main story of the documentary. We spent time with Alessandro, one of the children, a young guy in his 20s who grew up during the most difficult years for the family business – years when all the sheep were contaminated by dioxin.

Alessandro appeared angry when we spoke at home. From the 1990s up to this day, he meticulously collected clips from newspapers that relate directly or indirectly to the environmental emergency in Campania and in particular to his family. He took out several bags full of archival material and he showed us what he thought were the pivotal moments of the crisis. He also emphasized how from his great-grandfather up to his father everyone grew up as a sheepherder. Because of this environmental crisis and the death of his uncle, this profession is now out of family traditions.

We hope to spend more time with Alessandro’s family, paying special attention to Alessandro and his dad. Last week, we also visited a couple of dump sites in the countryside. We were lucky enough to have access in a site of ecoballe where all the toxic and non-toxic waste from 20 years of illicit dumping activity has been collected and put together into huge piles of trash covered by a black tarp. We got several close up shots of the ecoballe and one of the workers on the site let us shoot the leachate that has been deposited from the ecoballe. Leachate is the liquid that drains from toxic waste material in a landfill.

This week, I’m working on other subjects, developing and documenting their stories.

A video frame grab of Alessandro in his home in Acerra surrounded by documents and newspaper clippings

A video frame grab of Gennaro Esposito, an activist doctor at a toxic waste burial site

In the past two days, I met two women – a young girl affected by endometriosis and a middle-aged woman suffering from several hormonal unbalances. The young woman, Mariangela, is about to being tested to verify if her body contains the same toxic substances found in the land where she lives. The other woman, Bruna, has already been tested and she has a very high number of PCBs in her body.

Both women are potential subjects for the documentary and we will start filming these subjects next week. But the most dramatic story, which has high potential to become the strongest story of the documentary, is about a family of sheepherders. A father who lost his brother in early 2000 because his body was highly contaminated by dioxin. As a result, he quickly died of lung cancer. This man also lost his herd of animals when they were already all contaminated by dioxin. A tragedy that really has many aspects to be analyzed – one the health aspect, the other being the environmental side of the story. We visited their land yesterday with the father and his son. The land stands just a few meters away from the incinerator of Acerra (one of the biggest incinerators of Europe). On the other side of land stands Mt. Vesuvius. Now the family has no job and waiting to receive money from the city to cover the damage to their business activity.

Next week, accompanied by a doctor who is very active and involved with the environmental issue, we will be driving around the countryside, now buried and ruined by illegal dumping of waste. On schedule are interviews with the subjects we met so far and other meetings with more potential subjects.

We visited Naples a couple of days ago and almost everywhere we are, Naples and the region in general has this strange, vibrant energy that is hard to describe unless you have been here.

On the first day in Naples, we visited the Fontanelle cemetery, a strange place, I might say, located in a cave in the tuff hillside where thousands and thousands of Neapolitans, victims of the black plague of the 1600s and later the cholera epidemic of 1837, had been buried in this underground location. A dark place filled with thousands of unidentified human bones and skulls where myth, folklore, local beliefs and occult mix together. Check out the photo Matt took on his iPhone below.

It is really a symbolic place for the city – one that reflects the soul and the energy of the city itself.

Every visit to Naples is really a reminder of this weird energy…again hard to describe unless you’ve been here. The signs of the camorra, illegality and crime are visible if you can look beyond the appearance of the city, its streets, buildings and people.

It is surely an interesting place. Work will start tomorrow – visiting with doctors and families living north of Naples.

I think the anxiety to get to work has started. Time to get to work now….will post updates soon.

As a recipient of the Carole Fielding grant, I will be able to show my finished documentary to the UFVA conference, hopefully next year. In less than two months, we’re headed to Southern Italy for the production of the documentary. We’re almost all set to take off!!!

What’s more important is that the funding comes from a department that believes in the practice of interdisciplinarity and we also believe that our project is at the core of interdisciplinarity – blending together themes and issues from various disciplines, from environmental ethics, public health to cultural, political and social themes.

I really believe this door will open many other doors in terms of reception for this project. And I also feel very strongly that the opportunities for interdisciplinary approaches for this documentary are innumerable.

For now the main words are, I’m very, very, very excited and this seems a very important step to accomplish a very important project. The time to get to Campania is almost here….we simply can’t wait to get to work and deliver this project!!!

The conference, titled WaterWays Conference, represents an important occasion to promote water education, research and activities, providing room for discussion and collaborative approaches. We feel very lucky to be part of this event. Our hope is that many people are going to show up and learn about this important and urgent issue of toxic waste in Southern Italy. We also hope to raise awareness about the film and let people know that we are still in need of funding and that any donation amount will be very welcome.

The presentation of Campania In-Felix will be Thursday, March 4 at 1:45 pm in the Environmental Education Science and Technology Building at UNT. Room to be announced.

We hope to see many of you there!

At this moment, we are looking for funding to cover the travel and living expenses of our crew for a month of shooting in Naples this summer. Every little penny counts and if you’re unable to donate, please spread the word to as many people as possible as we need a supporting audience at the moment.

Coming soon are also fundraising and promotional events for the film. So, stay tuned for more updates!

We only have a few months before we head to Naples, Italy, to film this project. But before we do so, we really need funding to make this happen. Every little penny helps. Please, remember that your donation will be be tax deductible and all we need at the moment is funding to cover travel and living expenses for two of our crew members.

Updates on how to donate coming soon. Very soon!