Malerba

A ‘human atlas’ in the form of a documentary that traces the linguistic boundaries and cultural divisions of Sicily. ‘Malerba’ moved around the island, mapping major differences in the sound of Sicilian. Anna Baldocchi met locals who shared their daily routines and stories. She used these to create what she calls a ‘human atlas’ that documents the socio-political reality of a territory made up of hundreds of linguistic varieties. Filled with sounds, facts and people whose past and future differs from ours, the atlas distinguishes those who speak dialect and those who don’t. The visual storytelling of the documentary was inspired by the cinema-vérité of the 1960s.