An Example of Circular Collaboration. A Conversation with Anna Kauber on the Making of In questo mondo

In December 2018, Anna Kauber’s In questo mondo premiered at the Torino Film Festival and won the prize for best Italian documentary film of the year. The documentary focuses on the life of shepherdesses in Italy and is the result of over two years of work between 2015 and 2017. Kauber traveled alone throughout Italy, covering over 17,000 kilometres from North to South, including Sardinia and Sicily, while following the daily practices of more than 100 women with their animals. Her documentation of Italian women shepherds adds an essential piece to the larger mosaic of the history, tradition, geography, and culture of the Italian rural world. Yet the film documents much more than this. It provides undeniable visual evidence of the deep relation of interdependence, connection, harmony, and intimate collaboration among humans, animals, and the natural landscape. This brief introduction provides context for an interview with the film director about the range of collaborations with the shepherdesses, animals, and surrounding landscape and with those who helped her to realise In questo mondo. Kauber is a filmmaker, writer, and landscape artist interested in the relationship between humans, food, and the natural landscape. In the last decade her work has documented life and work in rural areas across Italy. Her book Le vie dei campi was awarded the ‘Parole di Terra’ national literary prize in 2014, and her video of interviews, Ritratti di donna e di terra, was screened in 2015 at the Cineteca of Bologna for an event sponsored by the region of Emilia Romagna and by Slow Food. Anna Kauber conceived and completed In questo mondo as a low-budget documentary, serving as project creator, film director, photographer, cameraman, and sound editor. She purposely traveled alone, relating one-on-one with the women shepherds to avoid external interference while filming. Her presence behind the camera is discreet; she tries not to intervene in the daily routines of her interlocutors. There is no prepared script or formal direction. During the days she spent with the shepherdesses, Kauber simply followed her subjects, holding the camera as if it were ‘a hat, a rain jacket, or backpack’, so that it wouldn’t create any uneasiness. She would focus the camera and shoot while walking, without a tripod or sound system, allowing her curious eye and attentive ear to record the events around her. In this way, the camera is a discreet presence capturing formerly unseen details of the quotidian world