INFINITO is an experimental short dance film series developed in collaboration with my brother Ruggero Pini. The project was initiated in 2007 after I was diagnosed with cancer to document my experience of illness. Through dance and filmmaking, INFINITO explores the relationship to illness and its transformational aspects from a performative autoethnographic perspective.
The first episode of the series is the short film ABISSO. The film was recorded in 2007 and 2010 in Bologna (Italy) and in 2014 in Tenerife (Spain). ABISSO acts as a visual metaphor of my inner landscape at a crucial point in medical journey. The underwater dance depict the last dance Sarah performed with my original blood. A few months later I underwent a stem cells transplant which radically transformed my body and immune system. As a performative act, ABISSO marks the acknowledgment of my deepest fear and the courage to embrace my fate.
ABISSO
Directed by Sarah & Ruggero Pini, 2018
Choreography & Performance: Sarah Pini
Filming & Editing: Ruggero Pini
Original Soundtrack: Monkeeastronaut
ABISSO has been presented at international film festivals including Dance Cinema, [C]Screen-Spring Dancefilm Festival 2020, Moving Images International video-dance festival 2020, IntimateLens 2019, among many others.
ABISSO was featured on DANCE CINEMA (1.06.19 - 1.07.19) and received several acknowledgments including:
Winner 2019 Prize for a Student in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Australian Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS).
Winner 2018 Visual and Creative Ethnography Competition, Australian Anthropological Society and Australian Network of Student Anthropologists.
Resisting the patient body
Cinematic version of the video article "Resisting the ‘Patient’ Body: A Phenomenological Account" published on the Journal of Embodied Research (JER): https://jer.openlibhums.org/articles/10.16995/jer.11/
Directed by Sarah & Ruggero Pini, 2019
Written, Performed and Narrated by Sarah Pini
Filmed and Edited by Ruggero Pini