About ZaLab
ZaLab association was founded in Rome in 2006, to produce and distribute community-based documentaries and participatory video. ZaLab runs participatory video workshops in marginalised areas of the Mediterranean and the Balkans. ZaLab has been running award-winning participatory video workshops in Kerchaou (Tunisia), Biddu (Palestine), Stromboli (Italy) and Barcelona (Spain).
Za is the art name of Cesare Zavattini, maybe the most famous screenwriter of Italian neorealism. Not so well known is the fact that at the beginning of the ‘60s, Za theorized a new kind of free cinema, completely independent from the big production companies and the ‘star system’: a cinema conceived as a result of a collective creative work, based on the idea that “everybody is a cinematographer, if there’s a conscious will of self-expressing through cinema.” 8mm and super8 cameras, easy and cheap enough to become “as popular as ink and colours,” were supposed to be the technical infrastructure of this revolutionary project.
Za’s theories are the inspiration behind ZaLab’s project and ZaLab TV productions: modern participatory indeed demonstrated to be an extremely powerful tool for realising Zavattini’s cinematic vision. ZaLab TV is a digital encoding of Za’s thoughts for the globalized world: an internet tool for linking grassroot, participatory media experiences and publish their best stories globally.
