FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
THE VENETIAN DILEMMA
On a side street off Venice’s Piazza San Marco, a harried
Italian businessman squeezes past mobs of tourists browsing souvenir
shops and snapping photos. Stores selling intricate masks and Murano
glass dot almost every street corner, but what’s become of the
neighborhood bakeries, bars and daycare centers?
That’s what directors Carole and Richard Rifkind, New Yorkers
and tourists themselves, explore in this revealing look
into the lives of the locals of this tourist mecca. The filmmakers
depict the daily lives of a fruit and vegetable vendor, a
graphic designer with two young children, a writer and environmental
activist and the deputy mayor of Venice - all citizens struggling to
preserve a sense of community as they raise the
next generation.
For years, activists have touted “the sinking of Venice” as
the city’s most dire concern. But the Rifkinds introduce what they
suggest is an even greater dilemma - what will happen to a tourism-dependent city whose population is swiftly shrinking? In 2004, the
annual number of tourists in Venice surpassed 14 million, as the
number of residents has plummeted. In 1950, 175,000
residents called Venice home; in 2004 only 64,000 remained. As one
Venetian woman says, “We feel like foreigners in our own
city.”
Graphic designer Michela Scibilia advocates for “intelligent tourism”
and publishes the second edition of a restaurant and bar guide
profiling establishments where the local owner is almost always
present. Deputy mayor Roberto D’Agostino fights to build a metro
system in Venice, which he insists will revitalize the city for
residents.
Has Venice become the next Disneyland? Will the city’s number
of residents continue to shrink? What ultimately will become of this
place fondly known as the Bride of the Sea? The Venetian Dilemma is full
of questions and short on answers, but that’s the point. An ideal
film for anyone who loves to travel, this documentary exposes a true
social predicament and challenges viewers to consider the larger
concepts of community and tourism. Deborah Lynn Blumberg
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