“Life After Oil!” Marine landscapes and environmental narratives in a Sardinian film festival

In the last years, the environmental conversation radically changed Italian cultural practices and productions. This interest has been translated into the recent inauguration of several festivals dedicated to ecology and environmentalism; from national events like Cinemambiente, in Torino, to the local ones. With the lenses of ecocritical geopolitics (dell’Agnese, 2021), these events can be a useful subject of analysis since, in their process of film selection, film evaluation, and collateral activities, it is possible to highlight how a community narrates itself, defines its territory, and denounces environmental problems which endanger it. The way local film festivals and filmmakers absorb global environmental narratives and adapt them to their local reality is of particular interest. A valid example is Life After Oil film festival, born in 2014 in Sassari (Sardinia) from Massimiliano Mazzotta, with the objective to “sensibilize the most spectators on ecology, sustainability and alternatives to fossil fuels” (Life After Oil, 2021). In their eight editions, the films projected have been often focused on Sardinia and its environmental conflicts. Moreover, the festival has adopted an active role on the territory, planning film courses and school activities. In fact, Sardinian isle faced during the last Century several environmental issues: the presence of polluting petrochemical industries near the sea in Sarroch, Porto Torres, and Portovesme; the cementification of the coast which caused hydrogeological problems; the extinction of rural fisher replaced by a dangerous fishing industry; the militarization of large portions of the coast by NATO. All portrayed by local filmmakers. The aim of this research is to analyze documentary and fiction films presented to Life After Oil to understand how global marine environmental narratives and discourses have been vehiculated in Sardinia, define the approach of Sardinian filmmakers to ecological themes, and underline the most recurring environmental issues portrayed in these films. In conclusion, through a discourse analysis (Rose, 2012), we highlight the environmental taken-for-granted messages (dell’Agnese, 2021), i.e. those considered natural and “normal” by the authors, those accepted by society without challenging them.