Alberto Baracco
After studying information technology, philosophy, and film, I was awarded PhD in Film Studies at Kingston University, London (UK).
For over 15 years, I worked in several ICT companies (including Digital, Olivetti, Data Consult, and Appel), as a software analyst, project leader and product manager, before joining the University of Turin in April 2001.
Since 2001, I ran the Audiovisual Laboratory in the Department of Art, Music, Cinema and Theatre at the University of Turin for 12 years.
Now, I conducts research on film in the Department of Humanities at the University of Basilicata..
My main research areas of interest include Film Philosophy, Film Ecocriticism, Philosophy of Language and Media Studies. I have recently published with Palgrave Macmillan the book "Philosophy in Stan Brakhage's Dog Star Man" (2019), a monograph on film as philosophy which proposes a new methodological approach to interpretation of experimental cinema.
For over 15 years, I worked in several ICT companies (including Digital, Olivetti, Data Consult, and Appel), as a software analyst, project leader and product manager, before joining the University of Turin in April 2001.
Since 2001, I ran the Audiovisual Laboratory in the Department of Art, Music, Cinema and Theatre at the University of Turin for 12 years.
Now, I conducts research on film in the Department of Humanities at the University of Basilicata..
My main research areas of interest include Film Philosophy, Film Ecocriticism, Philosophy of Language and Media Studies. I have recently published with Palgrave Macmillan the book "Philosophy in Stan Brakhage's Dog Star Man" (2019), a monograph on film as philosophy which proposes a new methodological approach to interpretation of experimental cinema.
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In contemporary Italian cinema, the relationship between humans and trees has been deeply explored, both as an expression of an ecological ethics which radically opposes the idea of domination by humans over nature, and as a symbolic element in the narration of a more intimate search for identity. Reconsidering these expressive forms, the essay will focus on Cosimo Terlizzi’s cinema and, in particular, will consider his latest film Dei (2018), where the protagonist Martino maintains an intimate dialogue with the secular olive tree which stands in the middle of his courtyard.
Morton's philosophy offers us a way to rethink complex phenomena, distributed in space and time, such as global warming, a paradigmatic hyperobject that exceeds our experience and can only be grasped through sensuous representations that depict small, partial fragments of it.
Papers and conferences by Alberto Baracco
In contemporary Italian cinema, the relationship between humans and trees has been deeply explored, both as an expression of an ecological ethics which radically opposes the idea of domination by humans over nature, and as a symbolic element in the narration of a more intimate search for identity. Reconsidering these expressive forms, the essay will focus on Cosimo Terlizzi’s cinema and, in particular, will consider his latest film Dei (2018), where the protagonist Martino maintains an intimate dialogue with the secular olive tree which stands in the middle of his courtyard.
Morton's philosophy offers us a way to rethink complex phenomena, distributed in space and time, such as global warming, a paradigmatic hyperobject that exceeds our experience and can only be grasped through sensuous representations that depict small, partial fragments of it.
However, in more recent productions the cli-fi genre seems to depart from tragic-apocalyptic narratives, reinterpreting dystopian scenarios through a ironic, grotesque register, thereby establishing some affinity and connection with comedy. The conventional dramatic-apocalyptic setting has now become too predictable to shape compelling narratives capable of effectively engaging the film viewer.
With specific reference to contemporary Italian cinema, the paper focuses on the recent film directed by Ginevra Elkann, Te l'avevo detto (2023), providing an analysis in relation to the theme of the cli-fi genre and its most recent transformations. Elkann’s film takes for granted the climate catastrophe (a stance that resonated from the film title itself: I told you so), initiating a process of signification that aims to question by looking beyond, transcending the crisis. Elkann’s movie as well as other recent film productions – such us Don't Look Up (McKay, 2021) and, in Italy, Siccità (Virzì, 2022) – show that a transformation of the cli-fi genre, which I proposed to identify with the term ‘post-cli-fi’ (Baracco 2023), is underway. Through an ecocritical perspective, the paper will examine the forms of this new film genre and, more generally, the methodological problem pertaining to the practice of film ecocriticism.
While metamorphosis is central to fairy tales which show a shape-shifting that is one of their dominant and characteristic wonders (Warner 2011), it is also the fairy tale itself that is subject to a continuous process of transformation and change. Many scholars have recently emphasized how it is at the intersection between fairy-tale, media, and cultural studies that it is possible to analyze and understand the symbolic space in which these tales exist and act. How have Basile’s fairy tales metamorphosed in recent decades? What significant relationship exist nowadays between the Pentamerone, cinema and ecological thought?
From an ecocritical perspective, reconsidering some Italian cinematic adaptations of Basile’s work such as Francesco Rosi’s "C’era una volta" (1967), Matteo Garrone’s "The Tale of Tales" (2015) and Alessandro Rak et al.’s "Gatta Cenerentola" (2017), the paper will focus on Gigi Roccati’s film "Lucania. Land, Blood and Magic" (2019) which expresses an ethics of interconnectedness and interdependence between humans and Nature that appears to be fundamental for overcoming individual and collective traumas.
http://web.unibas.it/life2020
(Franco Ferrarotti, Atman. Il respiro del bosco)
The image of the tree as a source of life and a symbol of knowledge has a long tradition within the history of human thought. The reflection on the symbolic meaning of the identity relationship between humans and trees has been a leitmotif in philosophical speculation. Plato’s famous definition of the human being as arbor inversa, with its roots pointing to the sky and its branches attached to the earth, served to identify a dual nature, sensual and spiritual. Philosophy itself has been represented by Descartes as a sturdy and fruitful tree, with metaphysical roots, physics to define its trunk, and numerous branches to symbolize the other sciences. Rising from the ground to the sky, with its symbolic and sacred value the tree has represented for the mystical and religious tradition a means of connection with the divine. Through the relationship with the tree, human beings have thus rediscovered not only their deep and original connection with Nature, but also the possibility of understanding the meaning of life and death. As Hermann Hesse wrote in Wandering, “Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth.” But it is in Martin Buber’s dialogical philosophy that the tree becomes the necessary ‘You’ in relation with which it is only possible to say the ‘I’ and allow the human being to express its most authentic nature. Italian cinema has used the theme of the relationship between humans and trees for many of its films, both for the expression of an ecological ethics oriented to environmental protection, and as a search for one’s identity. Reconsidering these different expressive forms, the paper will propose a reflection on Cosimo Terlizzi’s cinema and, in particular, will consider his latest film Dei (2018), in which the protagonist Martino finds answers to his existential questions through a sort of symbiotic dialogue with a secular olive tree in his native village.
To travel the countries of the world is only symbolically a journey. Wherever you get to, you are seeking your own soul. "
(Andrei Tarkovsky)
"The most dangerous thing to do is to stand still."
(William S. Burroughs)
Abstract: Some scholars, such as George Santayana (1964), Eric Leed (1991), and, more recently, Pico Iyer (2000) and Alain de Botton (2002), have argued that traveling is a characteristic expression of human life and a peculiar aspect of human being. Historical and philosophical studies of travel have considered its symbolic nature and pointed out that travel is not only a movement in space but an essential experience of growth and enrichment. Based on a specific disposition of the self which is open to the encounter with the other, travelling raises awareness of an alterity that radically questions us and our beliefs. In this perspective, ecocinema has often used representations of travel to assert an ethics of nature which is expressed through an empathetic and respectful dialogue with the environment and the non-human. For ecocinema, the representation of travel is the means through which we can experience a different way of understanding life and inhabiting the world. It is a force for change. This paper will focus on ecophilosophy of travel in contemporary Italian cinema. Through the analysis of some low-budget films recently shot in southern Italy, such as Bella e perduta (Marcello 2015), La lunga strada gialla (Carmosino and Oliviero 2016), and Il segreto di Pulcinella (Griffo 2016), the paper will explore the expressive forms of an ethics in which the travel becomes a means of ecological activism.
Scholars from all areas of cinema and media studies and environmental humanities are invited to submit proposals on original, unpublished research related to the volume’s themes.
The deadline for submissions is: March 15th, 2021.
anche sulle implicazioni e sui possibili effetti che il cinema può innescare. Studiando i mondi filmici che il cinema crea, l’ecocritica cinematografica si interroga cioè sui modi in cui lo spettatore è coinvolto nell’esperienza filmica, da un punto di vista cognitivo ed emotivo, e su come le interpretazioni e i significati che ne scaturiscono possano riverberare nel mondo reale e possano produrre cambiamenti.