Previsualization & Sketches
Here are a few pages from the sketchbook that I used during interviews for FILI - Threads, an animated documentary on migrations. Initially, I tried drawing notes instead of relying solely on text and verbal language. Drawings can capture not only what we saw and sensed, but also what we imagined, which is a different way of seeing. During the interviews, the five protagonists recounted their memories of the places they left to come to Italy, and I found drawing to be an effective way of representing them.
Fili tells memories from five different countries: Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Somalia, Pakistan and Moldova. Those of Eno, Aicha, Sowda, Imtiaz, and Olga. Memories of the lives left behind to reach Italy. These memories allow seeing protagonists, not only masses and crowds. Single portraits of persons, not anonymous shots of migration flows.
