Piera Rossetto

Shamailang, Una mappa di parole, Audio-documentary by Martina Melilli (Original idea & Writing), Botafuego (Production, Sound design & Writing) and Piera Rossetto (Scientific advice & Writing)

“I started to view the importance of sociology as part of an embrace with and connection to the dance of life with all its heavy and cumbersome steps. It is an aspiration to hold the experience of others in your arms while recognizing that what we touch is always moving, unpredictable, irreducible and mysteriously opaque.” (Les Back 2007: 3)

When working with life stories of migration from an anthropological perspective, there is an aspiration to come as closer as possible to the meaning, to the sense, people make of their migration trajectory as they recall it. In his inspiring book The Art of Listening (2007), Les Back speaks of sociology as a listener’s art. Listening provides a privileged position to observe the way migrants ‘put things together,’ or, in other words, how they draw ‘constellations of memories.’
Shamailang, A Map of Words, represents a collaborative, creative attempt to connect with the life story of Roger Sciama and to follow the map of his life, as it unfolds across the Mediterranean and beyond.

Credits: FWF (Austrian Science Fund); CDEC Foundation (Milan) for archival material; with the kind participation of Elisa Giunchi, Università degli Studi di Milano, Emanuela Scarpellini, Università degli Studi di Milano and Marta Serafini, Corriere della Sera; with the steady support, encouragement and kind participation of Sandra, Silvana and Sabrina Sciama.

Episode n.1

 

Episode n.2, with the participation of Elisa Giunchi

 

Episode n.3, with the participation of Emanuela Scarpellini

 

Episode n.4, with the participation of Elisa Giunchi

 

Episode n.5, with the participation of Sandra Sciama, Silvana Sciama, Sabrina Sciama and Marta Serafini