Museo Italiano

The Museo Italiano is a new cultural centre for Melbourne's Italo-Australian community that chronicles - through moving image, object based and interactive exhibitions and installations - the history of migration of Italians to Victoria and Melbourne since the mid 1800s.

Daybreak Films was commissioned by the Museo Italiano to create several different moving image installations for permanent exhibition.

The first element 'Identity' involves a 4 screen installation consisting of 16 lyrical and evocative documentaries exploring different facets of the hybrid identities of Italian Australians. With cinematography by Katie Milwright, Stefan Duscio and Rhys Graham and a score by Canberra based composer Flynn Wheeler, these intimate films feature over 20 subjects ranging from a young Milanese 'migrant for love', to kickboxing champion Sam Greco, a family who make hundreds of kilos of prosciutti and salami for themselves each winter, and a woman who collects and performs the early folk songs of migrant women.

The second element 'Making Lives' is an 11 minute motion graphics piece created and animated by Darren Richmond with a score by Patrick Robertson and sound design by Emma Bortignon. Using the archives of the Italian Historical Institute, the piece creates a fluid impression of the history of Italian migration to Melbourne through a complex and poetic interlayering of photographic fragments and documents and objects from the last 150 years.

As well as two smaller video pieces focusing on the emergence of innovative theatre and music within the Italian community in the 80s, and an showcase of Giorgio Mangiamele's little known film 'The Spag', Daybreak also worked with Naomi Bishops and Richard Raber of Traces Films to edit together an installation displayed on 3 vast screens in the Museum's front window that interweaves moments of family life captured on Super8 over the last 4 decades.

The museum curated and produced by Deborah Rechter and Jennifer Klempfner will be a permanent place for the community to celebrate it's divergent history. It is located at 179 Faraday St, Carlton. More info can be found here.

INFO

MUSEO ITALIANO - IDENTITY

16 x 4min documentary exhibited as continuous loop over 4 screens, colour, stereo sound
Produced by Andrea Distefano & Rhys Graham
Directed by Rhys Graham & Natasha Gadd
Cinematography by Katie Milwright, Stefan Duscio, Rhys Graham
Edited by Tim Mummery, Natasha Gadd, Rhys Graham
Score by Flynn Wheeler

MUSEO ITALIANO - MAKING LIVES

11mins, HD, colour, animation
Written & Researched by Andrea Distefano & Rhys Graham
Produced by Andrea Distefano & Rhys Graham
Directed by Rhys Graham & Natasha Gadd
Motion Graphics Design & Animation by Darren Richmond
Score by Patrick Robertson
Sound Design by Emma Bortignon

MUSEO ITALIANO - FRONT WINDOW

40mins, super8, silent
Produced by Andrea Distefano & Rhys Graham
Edited by Naomi Bishops/Traces Films