UN PO’ DI TEMPO 11 minutes 1992
‘Un Po’ di Tempo’ narrates the story of a man who is ill and thinks he must be dying: what to do in that kind of situation if not the usual things? So, he goes to the barber, and, while there, pays attention to a young boy working as an assistant. The film unfolds in the manner of a game with a poetic outcome.
BORDERS 7 minutes 1995
A visual poem where the author describes by means of laconic passages that which can be described with metaphors.In the representation of death, a distant voice, that of Pier Paolo Pasolini.
The cry of battle lives on despite its conflict with reality, again against the marginalization of people, their suffering and discrimination. These are the crossings which constitute the theme of “Borders.” An homage to all people who, after all, have a clear conscience.
LET’S TALK ABOUT POLITICS 10 minutes 1996
Let’s Talk About Politics is an experimental film that uses dream sequences interspersed with ironic social commentary. Set in an unnamed Latin American Country, Gelmini presents the viewer with images of corrupt officials and military men. An opulent setting of sloth and puppets, signifying abuses of power, is intercut with beautiful shots of a man making love to himself in a mirror while his lover lays dying on the bed. The soft, gauzy focus of the shots give the film a beautiful and romantic feel to contrast its biting satire.
THIS IS CHIAPAS 42 minutes, 1997
On January 1, 1994, Chiapas Mexico, a group of indigenous people known as EZLN (The Zapatista Liberation Army), declare war against the Mexican government. An interview with two Mexican poets highlights the struggle of the indigenous peoples who have been oppressed since the Spanish Conquest. The images send a reminder to western culture of the concept of people living without hope and yet with the strength to resist, their struggle echoing throughout the world, attempting to make a new life. This is a message for peace, an invitation to solidarity and to a new awareness of the problems of racial discrimination, social exploitation, and of the continuous violation of human rights in countries such as Mexico. Although independently conceived, This is Chiapas is demonstrably a logical extension to, and a convincing statement following closely, the messages discovered and announced in the compelling Academy Award winning 1983 documentary featuring Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchu, When The Mountains Tremble.
ASESINADOS 12 minutes 1999 – By Elio Gelmini & Ross Turnbull
On June 10, 1998 as the world celebrated the opening of the century’s last soccer World Cup, Mexican federal army and police troops attacked a number of Zapatista villages in El Bosque, a municipality in the war-torn province of Chiapas. Several people were killed and the troops detained almost 60 campesinos (peasants.) Three days after, on June 13, Mexico commenced its first match of the World Cup, playing South Korea. On the same day in Union Progreso, the El Bosque village which had sustained the worst assault on June 10, the bodies of eight men were returned by intermediaries. It is unknown if the eight had been killed during the attack and their bodies removed by the troops, or if they had been among those detained. Asesinados juxtaposes these two events – the World Cup game and the return of the bodies to Union Progreso and subtly attempts to question actions taken in the name of national aspiration. Ironic, disturbing and succinct, the tape is a powerful reminder of the basis of the conflict in Chiapas: the systemic suppression of the human rights of its indigenous inhabitants.
O SOLITUDE 4 MINUTES 2004
In a public park, at the margin of ordinary life, past and present moments of the protagonist meet, they vanish, they appear, they narrate.
They are there to witness the hard facts of solitude, while some verses of John Keats sets them in a place without time.
ANGER ME 72 minutes 2006
The documentary ‘Anger Me’ is the story of the life, literary and motion-picture accomplishments of Kenneth Anger, a pivotal figure in the history of experimental film. An innovator and a pioneer, he literally blazed his own trail. Considered to be one of the major personalities of the 1960’s and 1970’s underground art scene, Kenneth defined himself as a “cinematographic magician” and his “cinema” as a ritualistic form. Anger’s films have taken audiences to places where only great film poets can arrive.