K_Scapes
10' (Italy)
Director/Producer:  Sam Cole

Description:

At the beginning of 1983, the Italian agency for cooperation together with the government of Niger developed a program for the rural development of Keita—almost thirty million new trees were replanted and the natural advance of the desert was halted. The rebirth of Keita is mostly due to the extraordinary activity of its inhabitants. Between June and November of 2007, during several missions, Cesar Meneghetti, Enrico Blasi and Sam Cole participated in the daily life of the local population collecting people’s testimonies and exchanging with them their thoughts, emotions and basic concepts of existence. From this they formed “Laboratory K,” an artistic multidisciplinary and interactive project. The material collected was edited and developed into twenty-two videos, an eight channel video installation, photographs and soundscapes. The aim is to express the harshness of the desert and through portraits, details, testimonies, and landscapes reveal the deep sense and representation of “place.”

Biography:

Sam Cole, born in the UK, has been living in Italy since 1990. He is a video reporter and filmmaker who has worked and traveled extensively all over the world with news agencies and NGOs (Greenpeace, Wild Aid, WWF, EJF, Red Cross, etc.) making films on environmental and human rights issues.

Contact Information:

Sam Cole
Via Della Caffarelletta, 111a
Rome 179
ITALY
E-mail: sambcole@yahoo.it