FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
Director + Editor: Inaya Graciana Yusuf
Producer: Alessandra Pasquino
STATUS
POST-PRODUCTION
Coming 2025
CONTACT
PRODUCTION TEAM
theoneandthemanyfilm @ gmail.com
– THE IMPOSSIBLE THEATER –
[ UNRESTRAINED SPIRIT AND IMAGINATION BEYOND BARS ]
Radical Italian dramaturge Armando Punzo questions the role of art, artists and freedom. Fighting to establish his experimental theatre in a maximum-security jail in Tuscany, he breaks barriers and stereotypes to prove that art challenges bias, fears and instigates change in people and policies.
We are prisoners of a reality of conventions, habits and self-imposed limits. Punzo’s experiment in theatre is rooted in the conviction that art can change this reality and change comes from self-knowledge. He works inside a jail with inmates where theatre is the method to foster this search for inner self. His Compagnia della Fortezza has evolved into a restorative, multifaceted experience that exceeds performance. Fear-inducing behavior commonly practiced inside prisons is quietly replaced by cultivating empathy and collaboration amongst inmates and guards. Punzo offers a model of what prison might become: a place of real transformation from the inside out.
The One and The Many is an intimate portrait and artistic collaboration with Punzo, a production to disrupt our stereotypes of jail, punishment and redemption. We follow Punzo’s lifelong struggle inside a maximum security prison, his new endeavor at a criminal psychiatric institution and his quest to travel inmate actors abroad.
– ARMANDO PUNZO –
THE CAREER OF A DIRECTOR AND SHAMANIC ARTIST ARMANDO PUNZO SPANS ACROSS THIRTY-FIVE YEARS: A DAILY RITUAL WITH OVER EIGHTY INMATE-ACTORS, PRODUCING MORE THAN FORTY SHOWS IN COUNTING.
Armando Punzo was born in Cercola (Naples) in 1959. Around 1978, he began his activity in Naples with street performances and established "Piccolo Circo Oscuro." His involvement in Volterra flourished in 1983 as a guide of the international group "L'Avventura" and the Center of Active Culture "Il Porto." Starting in 1987, after establishing "Carte Blanche," he began his partnership with Volterra Penitentiary and created a small workshop. By 1988, "Compagnia della Fortezza" was born and comprised of detainees-actors of the penitentiary.
Since then, he staged 40 shows, some of which have received major recognitions of the cultural and theatre field (Ubu 1991 Special Award for the work carried out in the penitentiary; Ubu Award 1993 for Best Show of the Year, with "Marat-Sade" and Ubu Special Award 1993 for the collective commitment in the dramaturgical research and work; Europe Award - Taormina Arte and Special Award AGIS 1996 for the show "I Negri", Ubu Award for the Best Show of the Year, Carmelo Bene Award - "Lo Straniero," ANTC (National Association of Theatre Critics) for the show "I Pescecani"; Region of Tuscany Award for Contemporary Culture 2005; Silver Medal of Presidency of the Republic Festival Viviani of Civil Commitment 2009; Ubu Award for Best Director 2010 for the show "Hamlice"; Peppino Patroni Griffi Award at the Capri International Film Festival, Holliwood, Ubu Award 2014 for Best Scenography for the show, "Santo Genet" at VolterraTeatro Festival and the National Center Theatre and Prison.
He has won many awards and acknowledgments including: six UBU Prizes, the Medal of the President of the Republic, the Sigillo d’Ateneo from the Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo, the National Association of Theatre Critics Award, the Carmelo Bene Prize from the Rivista lo Straniero magazine, the Europa Taormina Arte Prize, the Premio per la Cultura Contemporanea award from the Regione Toscana, the Premio Speciale Biglietto d’Oro Agis, Premio Napoli, Premio Scenari Pagani, Premio Nesi, Premio Speciale Fiesole, Premio Anima. He is the author of two autobiographical books: È ai vinti che va il suo amore (Clichy 2013) and Un’idea più grande di me (Luca Sossella 2019).
He complements his activity in penitentiaries with an intense activity as a director working with the most prestigious Italian and European theaters. He is often invited to hold conferences, workshops and seminars to talk about his innovative methodology of work.
In 2023, Armando received Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award at La Biennale de Venezia.
At the moment he is working on the fulfillment of a lifelong dream: to realize a Permanent Repertory Theatre in Prison.
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– Cast & Crew –
[ CORE TEAM ]
CREW
Inaya Graciana Yusuf
Director + Editor
Alessandra Pasquino
Producer
Matteo Castelli
Director of Photography
CAST
Armando Punzo
Founder Compagnia della Fortezza
Aniello Arena
Inmate-actor, Italian
Ibrahim
Inmate-actor, Senegal
Edmond
Inmate-Actor, Albanian
Yang
Inmate-Actor, Chinese
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