Interview with Alessandro Ienzi on the Launch of Human Freedom 2021

From The Last Era, by Alessandro Ienzi

Tom Block: Hello, Alessandro! 2021 is just starting and the International Human Rights Art Festival just named you an International Fellow for 2021. What’s your plan? 

Alessandro Ienzi: I am very happy and proud to be the next international fellow, and I do consider this international nomination as the consequence of all the activities I have been developing with my company, Raizes Teatro, in the last two years. In 2021, we will manage a global campaign called Human Freedom 2021 (see our launch video here) focused on promoting human rights around the world through art and theater. The program includes documentaries, short movies and theatre performance on human right issues. It will be developed online for the first two months but we are very confident we can perform live soon, in New York, Paris and Palermo.

Tom: Who is collaborating with you on the campaign? 

Alessandro: The campaign will be handled by Raizes Teatro, the theater company I created, with some important international partners: The Global Campus of Human Rights (one of the most important educational and training institutions in the world on human rights which is led by Manfred Nowak), Avant-Garde Lawyers (a law firm based in Paris led by Andrà Matei that protects artists whose rights have been violated), and, of course, the International Human Rights Art Festival.

Tom: What are the goals of the Human Freedom 2021 campaign? 

Alessandro: The goal of Human Freedom 2021 is to help people see the world as it could and should be—a world in which everyone’s human rights are protected. We believe that art is the best vehicle for helping people imagine this vision. Art is a perception of life in all its dimensions, the one we easily get and the ones we cannot physically perceive with our senses. Art allows people to see something that does not exist.

Tom: How will you reach this goal? 

Alessandro: Our strategy is to create a worldwide network of organizations, artists and passionate individuals. Everyone will be allowed and invited to take part in the campaign with his or her own ideas, ideals and projects. There will be several calls to create common projects on the issues we are tackling.

Tom: What is Raizes Teatro and how does it work? 

Alessandro: Raizes Teatro is an international theater company, made up of twelve people : actors, photographers, video makers, and writers from around the world. We are currently based in Palermo but some theaters around the world are asking us to move, and we are thinking about this opportunity.

Tom: How does Raizes Teatro work? 

Alessandro: We rehearse everyday, training and creating performances, then we perform in theaters but even in the city and town squares. We mix dance, music and writings, and our performances are inspired by true stories of people deprived of their rights. We work especially on rhythm and sound but we want also our stories to be easy to get and well understood by the audience.

Tom: What is your dream?

Alessandro: For the moment I would really like to produce one film on children rights. La bambinanza is my first work and it tells three stories of children deprived of their rights all over the world. I have already converted the theater script into a movie script and hope to realize it before the end of 2021, with three children coming from three different countries.

Tom: An impossible dream? 

Alessandro: To win an Oscar… never say never. The Human Freedom 2021 program has just started.