Paul Ballerini
Paul Ballerini is an emerging award-winning Italian-Canadian filmmaker from Montréal, Québec, who is interested in the blurred line between fact and fiction, memory and storytelling. Experimenting with reenactment, repetition, interviews and soundscapes, he glides between themes of family, obligation, re-examination of the past and the unreliability of perception. His work spans the spectrum of documentary and narrative filmmaking, and his films have been screened on the festival circuit as well as broadcast on television. He holds a Film Production BFA from Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, where his graduating film, Forgotten Man (2016), won the Susan Schouten Documentary Film Award. His films include Cotten (2015), which was selected at the Rendez-Vous du Cinéma Québécois (RVCQ), as well as Nothing Special (2019), which premiered at the 14th annual Cinema On The Bayou festival, in Louisiana and won the Best First-Time Filmmaker at the Canada International Film Festival. He is currently an Master of Fine Arts candidate in Film Production at Concordia University, where he entered with a full scholarship. His present research-creation project, Home as Alone, is funded and supported by the Fonds de recherche du Québec.
SYNOPSIS
Routine Seasons explores the impact of caregiving on first and second generation immigrants through the home of Gabriella.
Synopsis:
Gabriella’s mother suffered a stroke that left her half-paralyzed and unable to care for herself. For the last ten years, Gabriella has been mostly unable to leave her home. Routine Seasons explores how the love and sacrifice we offer others and impose onto ourselves can evolve into guilt and resentment. Paul Ballerini enters this house alone and creates a piece that explores, using in-camera techniques, the hidden experiences in this home and how reality can be perceived by the individuals living it. Distorted viewpoints, the passing of seasons, politics, the juxtaposition of public and private space and a filmmaker’s obsession all converge to dissect the family’s predicament.
Synopsis:
Gabriella’s mother suffered a stroke that left her half-paralyzed and unable to care for herself. For the last ten years, Gabriella has been mostly unable to leave her home. Routine Seasons explores how the love and sacrifice we offer others and impose onto ourselves can evolve into guilt and resentment. Paul Ballerini enters this house alone and creates a piece that explores, using in-camera techniques, the hidden experiences in this home and how reality can be perceived by the individuals living it. Distorted viewpoints, the passing of seasons, politics, the juxtaposition of public and private space and a filmmaker’s obsession all converge to dissect the family’s predicament.