PEACE RIOT - my new short film and the story behind it

My latest short film finally 'landed' on the web!
It's called PEACE RIOT and it was produced by the Piedmont Region in partnership with the Social Services of the City of Turin. It came out of a wider project called Conosciamoci e facciamoci conoscere (Let's know each other and make the others know us), which required the direct involvment of kids from local high schools and Youth social centres. I thought the title of the campaign had to become the philosophy of this experience: the crew of young and valiant professionals and the group of kids know each other and together they give birth to a short film that allows them to be known by others, that is to say an audience (as wide as possible). I wrote the story and involved the kids as actors. Some didn't want to appear in front of the camera, thus they became on set assistants.
The first step - knowing each other - was a genuine adventure: together with Dario Cucco (a pedagogic consultant who is also a professional clown) I met with the kids and told them what a film set works like and what a director does. Some of my brilliant collaborators came along and did the same (you can find them all in the credits: wonderful, wonderful professionals and human beings).
Once on set, the kids discovered what making a movie really meant: the long pauses, the constant repetitions, the tricks behind atmospheric effects were all revealed at once.
Some of them got excited and some others got bored, but by the end of the last day of shooting (which also fit with the "grand finale" in the story) everybody went home with big smiles on their faces.
The secon and last step - be known by a wide audience - is happening now: the result of such a peculiar adventure can be seen here.
I can tell you I conceived this short as a journey through adolescence, but I really want everybody to see (and find) their own story while watching it.
All I can say is that I concentrated a lot on colours, which I always do in my works. They are useful to portray stories and characters, and especially what is harder to show on film: the mood.
Peace Riot is certainly no exception to this; but whether it represents personal growth, the difficulty of feeling alone and misunderstood until one discovers the power of the group, the devastating and "clean" energy of kids, or something else...well, I would like to leave all of this up to the spectator.