“A piedi nudi”: the documentary we shot while theatres were closed, now on Amazon Prime Video
Between 2020 and 2022 we followed Compagnia Artemis Danza as it danced barefoot in squares and monuments across Italy and Spain. Our co-production with WellSee opened in cinemas in 2024 and is now on Prime Video.
In 2020 theatres closed and dance lost its stage. Compagnia Artemis Danza, led for 25 years by choreographer Monica Casadei, decided not to wait: it took its shows outside and started dancing in squares, archaeological sites and monuments. We went with them.
That journey became “A piedi nudi” (“Barefoot”), a 75-minute documentary we co-produced with the Italian company WellSee. After its cinema run in 2024, it is now available on Amazon Prime Video.
A tour outside the theatre
The camera followed the company day by day from the end of the first wave of Covid until theatres fully reopened: the travelling, the rehearsals, the open-air performances, and the fears and hopes of the dancers at a time when nobody knew when things would go back to normal.
The film features choreographies based on operas such as La Traviata, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Carmen and The Barber of Seville, plus new pieces inspired by Dante's Inferno and by Fellini.
From Ravenna to Morella
The shoot travelled to places rarely seen as a stage for dance:
- Borgo San Giuliano in Rimini, Fellini's neighbourhood.
- Dante's Ravenna: Sant'Apollinare in Classe, the Mausoleum and Sant'Apollinare Nuovo.
- The Scala dei Turchi and the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, Sicily.
- Piazza Maggiore in Bologna, Rocchetta Mattei, Parma and, in Rome, the Baths of Caracalla and Hadrian's Villa.
- And in Spain, Valencia and Morella.
Who made it
The film was written by Elena Costa and directed by Jessica Giaconi and Ricardo Villalba, with original music by Graziano Mossuto. Antonino Moscatt and Angelisa Castronovo produced for WellSee, and Polarys joined as the Spanish co-producer. The project was supported by the Italian Ministry of Culture and a long list of institutions, including the Valley of the Temples Archaeological Park, the Ravenna Festival and fifteen Italian Cultural Institutes abroad.
Alongside Monica Casadei, the documentary features dancer Midori Watanabe and choreographers including Asun Noales, Sara Muccioli, Vittorio Colella, Emanuele Serrecchia and Philippe Menard.
From cinema to streaming
“A piedi nudi” premiered on 24 May 2024 at Cinema Farnese Arthouse in Rome and then screened in Parma, Milan, Naples, Rimini, Agrigento and Bologna. It has now reached Amazon Prime Video, so you can watch it at home.
It is a special project for us: it shows how we work on both sides of the Mediterranean, with crews in Spain and Italy. If you have a documentary in the works, get in touch. The full credits are in our portfolio, and if you are planning to shoot in Italy, you may want to read how the Sicilian tax credit works.
