Valeria Testagrossa
Writer-director
Italy
Valeria Testagrossa is a writer, director and cinematographer.
She studied Visual Arts in Bologna University, Multimedia Journalism and Documentary Filmmaking in Westminster University, Cinematography at Shot Academy in Rome. In the past she worked as photographer and journalist, collaborating with the Guardian and Il Manifesto with writing, images and videos. Since 2012, she dedicates completely to cinema.
She has directed various documentary films that have been screened in festivals such as Visions Du Reel, Idfa, Torino Film Festival, CPH:DOX, Docs DF, Mar Del Plata. STRIPLIFE won the Special Jury Prize at Torino FF.
Her cinema explores stories of everyday resistance, investigating the multiple ways humans find to create new paths and to survive the subtle violence of social pressure.
Valeria Testagrossa is based in Rome and is now writing and developing her first fiction film DOR.
Project
Dor
Gioia (80) was a very famous pianist. She lives in Rome with Ana, her fifty-year-old Romanian caretaker. They share a very precise routine and their relationship consists in
long silences and sharp remarks. But behind the protective barrier, the two women share many intimate moments and have an ironic complicity. One day, Gioia wakes up to find Ana has disappeared mysteriously and this event completely changes her life. She experiences all the stages of abandon, from anger to despondency. Ana would never have left without telling her. Or did she? Gioia waits, but at one point it is clear: she is not coming back.
For the first time in many years, Gioia leaves her home. She gets on a bus filled with people who don’t speak Italian and, while facing the challenges of a very long journey, she seems to plunge in a world in which everything reminds her of Ana. She realises how little she had observed and as a memory puzzle the pieces come together. Gioia experiences an intense transformation before reconnecting with her deepest need.
