"I bambini si guardano": The documentaries of Costanza Quatriglio

Costanza Quatriglio has made numerous documentaries and one feature film that have focused on marginalized children. We discuss two of her documentaries: Il mondo adosso/The Weight of the World (2006) which is about minors who arrive unaccompanied as immigrants to Italy and L’insonnia di Devi/Devi’s Insomnia (2001) about children and adolescents who are products of transnational adoptions and who struggle with questions of identity. These documentaries, structured as journeys, privilege the uniqueness of personal narratives. Unlike many contemporary feature films which use the child’s point of view as a different angle from which to observe the ‘adult’ world, these documentaries place the adolescents’ reality at the centre of the narrative while also challenging the authority of those who frame their stories. The two documentaries are structured around an ethos, an aesthetic principle and a relational style that give voice to often marginalized ‘others’. Both deliberately privilege the often unheard and unauthorized voices of child migrants. They also foreground the uniqueness of each individual’s narrative and explore complex feelings of loneliness and abandonment. Moreover, both documentaries address pressing social issues in contemporary Italy. © 2011 Intellect Ltd Article.