Terre di Cinema, or How to Shoot a Short in Sicily on Kodak 35mm Film

I was in Mauritius when I followed an impulse to apply to Terre di Cinema, a 2 week annual workshop devoted to the craft of cinematography and shooting on 35mm film. I had some initial visual and story ideas and knew I wanted to shoot in a historic Italian opera theater which was listed as an available location so, in a twist, I applied as a director and not a cinematographer. Thrilled to be accepted, I booked a flat in central Catania for a month and started to prep. I knew we would have (4) 400' rolls of Kodak film stock - check the Kodak film calculator app to find out how little footage that actually is (spoiler, it's 24 minutes at 24fps). We ended up not even using all of our film stock, but that's another story...

Rooftops of Catania

I spent a gorgeous month in the Sicilian heat writing, researching and producing the film and one crazy 12 hour day shooting it along with new and old friends and even some family - shout to my UPM, translator and cousin Christy Sommers who was my roomate in Catania and the glue of this production.

mio cugina Christy Sommers at our apartment in Catania

Christy just so happened to be living in Catania at this time doing her Fulbright research on immigration in Sicily. As of 2022 we're both dual citizens of Italy and the US, and getting to collaborate on this project was a sweet way to celebrate our hertigage and future as Italians.

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On the first day of TdC, I teamed up with cinematographer Kian Altmann and camera operator Sonja Mandani and together with mentors and producers Fabrizio Muscia and Dominic Ciccodicola, formed and executed the plan for Stunner. Our original location, the historic opera theater of Catania, fell through or perhaps was never actually available, who can really say. We set out to find a replacement location, and discovered an enchated Palazzo. Sadly, it was only available for a few hours on our assigned shoot day as a tour group of Greek school boys had already booked in.

Cinematographer Kian Altmann on a location scout for Stunner.

The amazing palazzo which we did not use as a location because it was already reserved for a school tour.

At the 11th hour we found and secured the Cine Teatro Odeon, a literal dream of a location that inspired a rewrite to take advantage of the various spaces in the theater. Although the location fee was a surprise, Kian kindly chipped in and we split the cost. We were both quite desperate to avoid the black box theater that seemed to be our only other alterative.

Stills from Stunner, a short film by Marianne Williams.

Kodak 35mm film process and scanned by Augustus Color in Rome, Italy

You can see a trailer for Stunner here: http://marianne-williams.com/stunner

I cut Stunner into an experimental narrative short about trauma and responsiblity which screened at 8 regional festivals including Oceanside International and ASVOFF in Paris, France, winning Best Cinematography at the Highland Park Independent Film Festival, November 2023.

Behind the scenes set stills by Giuseppe Guarrera

After I finished production on Stunner, I was able to shoot some 120mm stills on other TdC sets, and got some great moments of my fellow directors working with their teams in beautiful locations all around Catania.

At home, it took over 6 months to finish this simple, 5 minute experimental short film. I learned to edit with sync sound and many friends helped including key collaboraters like colorist Parisa Rezvani, musician Derrick Estrada (Baseck) and sound designer Emilie Corpuz.

In retrospect, I loved this whole experience and I LOVE Sicily!!! I want to go back!

TdC 2024?? They are in Syracusa this year!