A couple weeks ago I was sitting in the office next to Caterina Fogliani, a cheery, warm 60 year old. We were scanning the original patent applications and schematics her grandfather had submitted to a patent office in Genova over a century ago. These are some of the first patents for an optical sound-on-film system in the world, predating both the German Tri-Ergon system and the De Forest system from the US. Her grandfather was Giovanni Rappazzo, who was born in our town of Messina in 1893, and while other young men his age were busy chasing girls, he spent his time developing a technology that would revolutionise the cinema industry. What’s more he did it in Messina, a city that had just been ravaged by one of the worst earthquakes in recorded history, essentially a city of rubble and in a period where the world was in the mist of the first catastrophic war.

Today these documents are our starting point in re-telling Giovanni Rappazzo’s story, wafer thin, brittle and stained but rock solid testaments to a man ahead of his time. We handled them with care, as page after page was submitted to the digital realm for safeguarding, yet knowing full well that this was just the tip of the iceberg.

When Marco Morano of Italy Unlocked first brought this project to Pomona I was very sceptical, but the more I’ve been looking into this man and his inventions the more I’m convinced that there really is something very special to be told here. Then when Saverio Tavano of Lighthouse Pictures submitted the idea and secured funding I knew the project was going to be in safe hands. I’m proud that team Pomona will be there to help bring this beautiful mind to the big screen, watch this space.

Pierangelo Pirak

Messina 13/10/2024