A Portrait of Redemption in Five Acts
Feature documentary

Synopsis

Giampaolo Manca, a former boss of the Mala del Brenta gang in Venice, Italy started with his first major theft, at only 17 years old, of the paintings of Bellini & Vivarini in the Santi Giovanni and Paolo church, where all the Doges are buried, thus gaining him the nickname ‘Il Doge’, along with the respect of many local criminals.

Giampaolo’s crimes started as a means of rebelling against the terror that his father inflicted upon him and his fraternal twin brother, Fabio, when they were children. It wasn’t until the police killed his best friend and accomplice, Silvano Maistrello, the bandit known as Kociss, that Giampaolo rose up quickly in criminal rank, becoming a boss in his own right and carrying on, even surpassing the legacy of his famous friend.

Giampaolo spent a total of 36 years, 8 months and 2 days in prison throughout his life, including 12 years in solitary confinement. While in prison, Giampaolo made a promise to God that if Fabio’s life was spared in the face of cancer, he would cease all his wrong doings. Today, Giampaolo is a free man, trying his best to keep his promise by helping those in need, while remaining unsure if he can ever really forgive himself for the sins of his past.

“This documentary comes to a point and leads you to discover, perhaps for the first time, what the existence of a criminal really is.” -Cosimo Curatola, Journalist Mow Mag

A film by Gianna Isabella Magliocco
The life story of Giampaolo Manca AKA ‘Il Doge’
Executive Producer: James Mahoney | Cinematography: Daniel Everitt-Lock
Music: Thilo Schaller | Sound: Joel Varjassy

Director’s Statement

By the time this documentary is finished being viewed, I would like the audience to be stuck in their seats, thinking about the story presented to them and discerning their own thoughts & feelings as I ask them, "is a man more than his mistakes?"

Visually, the story is presented intimately, I approached the documentary in a free-flowing form which includes being malleable and improvisational by nature as we follow the main subject through his daily life. This is a fly on the wall styled documentary. There is a portion which feels more still, more fine art. This is to show the dichotomy of the subject. Black & White is a bold choice for this documentary, but a necessary one. It provides a stripped down picture of the main subject and allows the audience immediate access to him with no distractions, while exploring different aspects of him and intersections of his life with others. It also gives us a nostalgic feel to another time in Venice, as Venice itself is a character within the documentary. In its basic nature it draws inspiration from Italian Neo-Realism but mixes it with a modern twist. It is in Italian language but it includes the Venetian dialect as this is the natural language the main subject speaks with his family and it keeps true to his story & customary traditions. The primary motivation for making a documentary of this nature for me as an artist is to explore human nature in all its facets and often times that means in its most extreme conditions. Could a man truly be more than his mistakes, more than his actions, more than his past, more than the crimes he has committed?

“The documentary flows between re-enactments, even in detail, of criminal exploits that Edgar Allen Poe would have willingly recounted, and episodes of profound humanity.” -Ferruccio Gard, Artist & Venice Golden Lion Winner

For more information, please contact: gianna@gate67.ca