Fifteen years have passed since the inception of the Master of Film ‘Artistic Research In and Through Cinema’ at the Netherlands Film Academy. Over time, it has become not just a programme, but a moving body—a living archive of those who refuse to define cinema by what it is, but rather by what it dreams of becoming.

Agnese Cornelio makes performances based on contemporary plays as well as documentary theatre projects. She graduated in 2014 with the research for her film Fondata sul lavoro (Free to Work). In her theatre as well as in her filmwork she has an emphasis on physical performance, which she will discuss as part of this evening around the screening of Fondata sul lavoro (2018).

What remains in your memory and in your body of all the work you've done?

"Fondata sul lavoro" is the first article of the Italian Constitution: "Italy is a democratic republic founded on work". Yet citizens leave, because there is no work. The film retraces what remains of the work that people used to do, how it is inscribed in their bodies and stuck in their memories. Meet Antonio, Eros, Paola and many others. Nine Italian migrants. Each one of them is recalling and repeating, as in a theatrical performance, words and gestures of their past jobs, tapping into humor, poetry and monotony of repetitive mundane activities. In front of a grey background their reenacted stories retrace the transition from manual and material labour into immaterial work