Lucca seen as a place of liberation, community in Manlio Castagna Film

“I came to Lucca for the first time in 2018, and at the time I thought it was some kind of carnival with a lot of people with strange costumes and things like that,” says film director Manlio Castagna. Variety. “But when I entered this incredible walled city, I felt like it wasn’t just a carnival, but a place where people could be happy with their identity. Lucca Comics & Games is a place where people can be whatever they want to be. They put on masks to show their true selves.”

Castagna is the director of the new documentary ‘I Love Lucca Comics & Games’, a passionate love letter to Europe’s largest comics convention. For five days, the medieval Italian town in the heart of Tuscany will be transformed into a cosplay mecca, with signings, artist events, screenings, exhibitions and concerts with more than 300,000 visitors pouring into the streets and squares.

Using the metaphor of the Mandala, Castagna’s film builds a picture piece by piece, following the stories of the organizers, the artists and writers, the game designers and film directors, and the fans and how they interact with each other.

“This is a film about communities,” says Castagna. “It’s a place where bridges are more important than walls. It’s important to show how gratitude, for example, is a kind of glue between normal people, normal in quotes, normal people and the community and the artist, the guest.”

There are shots of fans meeting their favorite artists and writers, and what makes it moving is that outside of their fandom, the stars of the comic or gaming scene may not be household names and so here they get a taste of the appreciation the fans feel. After finding compelling stories among fans through social media, Castagna filmed the entire festival with two cameras. An editing room was made available on site and the festival gave the director access to VIPs and guests such as best-selling authors RL Stine and Licia Troisi, rapper Frankie Hi-NRG MC and comics artists Pera Toons, Sio, Yoshitaka Amano and Roberto Recchio. “The first day we had a lot of rain and that was difficult, but the following days the sun shone.”

One of the most moving stories in the film is its portrait of a father and son who bond over their love of nerd culture. “I have been going to schools for the past 25 years because I was vice director of the Giffoni Film Festival for children. So I connect with the young people and I have seen with my own eyes how this culture has changed over the years. In the beginning, when I started reading comics, Dungeons & Dragons, the role-playing game, was only for a certain group of people. In schools, this kind of art was not seen in a very good way. The two or three children who read manga would get bullied. Now it’s the complete opposite when I go into the classrooms, all the kids know about this: manga, anime and D&D. Lucca Comics & Games is a window to see this change, but at the same time it is the engine of this transformation.”

Some of the people in Castagna’s documentary have had their lives transformed by Lucca’s experience. They meet their life partners; they come out; they find friendship and community. “The first title that came to my mind when I was filming was ‘The Happiness Effect’ because Lucca has this kind of effect on people. Lucca can affect you as a place full of magic and full of these incredible, special people. For example, people stand in line for hours and are always happy. There are a lot of people, and we never see fights or conflict. It’s a wonderful example of what society can be like.”

Returning to the metaphor of the Mandala highlighted in the film, Castagna explains: “Lucca Comics & Games thrives through the collective contribution of thousands of people: organizers, exhibitors, artists and the public. It is a collective ritual that in its composition reflects the patient construction of the festival itself. But like the Mandala, the festival is also destined to end unload. Ultimately, each element is dismantled, the squares return to emptiness and the streets resume their rhythm. Nothing remains but the memory and the prospect of the next edition, when the design can take shape again.”

Lucca Comics & Games takes place from October 29 to November 2. I Wonder Pictures releases “I Love Lucca Comics & Games” in Italy on November 10.