Vidas de Vidrio – Documentary

Vidas de Vidrio – Documentary

When I was living in México City I met two street boys that were throwing themselves onto broken glasses in the wagons of the metro. I decided to follow them and I started this independent documentary Co-directed with Tommaso Valli. Here the website of the project.

 

THE THEME:

The Metro of Mexico City transport 5,5 millions of people a day and It has been designed for transporting just a half of them.

It’s not just a public transport, for many people it’s a real workplace: an illegal factory with his hierarchies and laws not written.

There are many ways to ask for money in the metro: singing a song, cleaning shoes, telling stories and so on. Maya and Ojos throw themselves onto broken glasses in the middle of the wagons screaming at people their living condition and asking for a help.

Our two protagonists live with their Banda (a group of other street boys) in the square of Pino Suarez, next to the metro station in the city center. Between them you can find children, pregnant women, and old grandmothers, they live all together like a family sharing food and the popular drug of Mexico City streets called Mona a PVC solvent that they inhale all day long. When there is a lack of money they collect new glasses from the garbage and go back to the metro.

The act of Faquir is something very common to see in Mexico City, every metro line has its banda, they don’t hurt or threaten anybody, they just ask for a change, sometimes they get money, sometimes they don’t, people got used to them.

 

vidas de vidrio giacometti

 

THE PROJECT:

When we started this project, like many other people that see this for the first time, we asked ourself: “Why they choose to do this to earn a living? Isn’t there anything better?” We understood that the answer is not as simple as it seems and needs to be found by immersing ourselves in their daily reality, looking at it from their own perspective.

We decided to produce the documentary Vidas De Vidrio taking this topic from inside, following the daily life of Maya and Ojos. We started from their daily work, we met their banda and family, we listened to the stories of their past and their perspectives about the future. Our aim is to represent these characters simply as they are, behind the prejudice and the indifference generated by the act they do to earn a living.

The core of the project it’s a linear documentary that started in 2016 and it’s still on production. We are actually looking for funds to finish the post production and we are searching a distribution channel. We have also prototyped, with the collaboration of the photographer and psychologist Arturo Velázquez, an interactive version of the documentary, where the user can navigate through the wagons of the metro and square where they live to meet the faquires one by one and deep in their own stories.

We presented the project at Biennale Democrazia in March 2017 in Torino.

Vidas de vidrio giacometti

Floating Lab – Royal College of Arts London

floating lab

Floating Lab – Royal College of Arts London

With the support of the Loyd’s register foundation some students from RCA created this project where students from elementary school take classes on a boat that floats on London canals.

daniele giacometti floating lab

daniele giacometti floating lab

daniele giacometti floating lab

Simplemente Félix Beltrán

Felix beltran daniele giacometti

Simplemente Félix Beltrán
During my master degree in México I produced this short documentary about one of the biggest graphic designer during the cuban revolution.
The documentary portraits Félix Beltrán in his present following him inhis daily routine from his house to the Uam university in México City. It mixes different perspectives about Félix: his colleagues who tell us why is he considered one of the biggest graphic designer in Latin America, his students who consider him too old to teach them and his wife who confide us his fears and thinking about the future.

Meximan – El Heroe del Corazón

Meximan

Meximan – El Heroe del Corazón

When I was living in México in the little town of Queretaro I met Giorgio Alberto Meximan Cortez, a guy who passes his days singing in the streets for the people dressed up like a super hero, a super hero of the heart.  When he saw me with a videocamera he ordered me to make him a video… That was the beginning of a great friendship.