When The World Answered

When The World Answered
When the World Answered looks back at the worldwide Herculean efforts to save and restore the artwork of Florence after massive flooding destroyed many of the cities priceless treasures nearly fifty years ago. Filmed by local producer Kim Jacobs, the documentary also explores the modern-day efforts to recognize the women artists who made significant contributions during Florence’s time of need.
TRANSCRIPT
[water rushing]
NARRATOR: It was a historic
and cataclysmic flood which
threated lives and some of
mankind's most precious
LINDA FALCONE: The whole world
damaged in some very profound
PAOLA VOJNOVIC: We have so
many things that were lost over
time.
NARRATOR: This is the story of
how the world answered.
came and answered Florence's
plea.
They did it because I think the
NARRATOR: And how it's still
answering 50 years later.
LINDA FALCONE: It bears
witness to the good that can
come from pain or that can come
ANNOUNCER: "When the World
Answered" is made possible
through the generous support of
NARRATOR: The great Arno River
passes right through the city of
Florence Italy.
The city of Man, of Galileo,
Botticelli, and Leonardo da
Vinci, who said a single drop of
water can gather and reflect all
the places it passes, and in
time water eventually changes
everything.
NARRATOR: In, 1966, without
warning, the Arno burst out of
its banks in the night when most
were sleeping.
NICHOLAS KRACZYNA: I had a
only afford one roll of film at
NARRATOR: Nicholas Kraczyna
took some of the first recorded
still images.
NICHOLAS KRACZYNA: I went out
to the bridge and it was
exhilarating, it was very dark
because it was overcast.
Frightening.
I would have to hold my breath
and wait for a dramatic moment
in snap.
It is amazing how young mind
does not consider what
Here I am, this is a historic
moment and I'm going to living
through it.
My own personal history and
Florence's history are
NARRATOR: Internationally
acclaimed movie director, Franco
Zeffirlli recorded the only
known film of the watery
NARRATOR: With unparalleled
intensity, the raging water
destroyed homes, lives, and some
of the world's most precious
NARRATOR: Not since the
Renaissance had a flood caused
such devastation.
4 million rare books from the
library.
14,000 masterpieces.
Ghiberti's "Doors of Paradise"
ripped open.
Donatello's "Mary Magdalene"
Santa Croce's "Chimabue."
Vasari's "Last Supper."
BURTON NARRATES: "The water
starts coming into the city and
it rises so fast that
no one has time to save
or bring away from museums and
churches those art treasures
on which Florence is so rich.
of Michelangelo,
of Galileo,
of Machiavelli
NARRATOR: Narrated by Richard
Burton, "Days of Destruction" is
ANTONIA BARGELLINI:
Zeffirelli's film, I cannot
NARRATOR: Antonia Bargellini
was 22 years old when her
family's home was nearly
submerged.
ANTONIA BARGELLINI: We were
afraid that buildings would
collapse, because the water rose
5 meters higher.
We saw the diesel flowing out,
we were afraid that it would
NARRATOR: Her father,
Mayor Piero Bargellini,
governed rooftop to
rooftop amidst the shouts of
ANTONIA BARGELLINI: And it
seemed to be almost back to the
middle Ages because of the
silence, no light, no water, no
nothing.
And those voices that you could
hear through the night were very
NICHOLAS KRACZYNA: It was like
out of Dante's Inferno because
it was silence.
And the only thing you could
hear were oars dipping into the
water and all these people on
the boat were frozen and as soon
as they touch land everyone was
animated it was as though people
turn on their sound.
And right then and there I
decided I would photograph the
people of Florence and Florence
and what happened to them
and how the city was resurrected
ANTONIA BARGELLINI: And when
we came out in this Florence
covered in mud, dirty,
we were welcomed
by other parts of the
city in a unthinkable way and a
great sense of camaraderie began
to develop which in my opinion
NARRATOR: The response to
Zeffirelli's film was
overwhelming.
Thousands of volunteers.
Millions in aid.
First responders were mostly
students who became known as
JANE FORTUNE: And those mud
angels were kids, basically,
that came from all over the
world, and helped get
out of the museums
and into places where
POALA TROISE: Of course it was
terrible.
mud, no food.
But I remember it was an
LINDA FALCONE: It was a
the capital of humanism, the
capital of culture, the whole
JANE FORTUNE: It actually
brought the world to Florence
and showed Florence how much the
NARRATOR: The flood forced in
a new era of scientific
discovery in the field of
restoration both in art, also
precious books.
ALLESANDRO SIDOTI: Right after
the flood, they close the
library actually trying to move
the things up and start the
NARRATOR: Here at the National
Central Library in Florence,
SIDOTI: They did some mistakes
in the very beginning.
They tried to clean things up
using sponges and they use
sawdust on the material that
added dirt to dirt.
No one knew what to do.
And they started washing books
in the railway station.
That was the only place in
Florence where they had clean
water.
NARRATOR: The flood destroyed
4 million rare books.
Today there are seven
conservators who still
wash and trim,
For some materials and works of
art, it has taken 50 years to
develop restoration techniques
that work.
Across town at the Opificio
Pietre Dure, scientific
developments continue to save
PAOLA VOJNOVIC: They are
probably one of the most
the world.
They can pretty much restore any
NARRATOR: After over 40 years
in storage, a technique has
finally been developed to save
POALA VOJNOVIC: Up until three
years ago it was completely
covered with Japanese paper.
So it's a huge work of art and
came in and all you saw were
these white boards.
Hopefully it will be back in
2016 when we have the 50th
NARRATOR: Vasari's "Last
Supper" will eventually return
to Florence's Basilica of Santa
Croce, resting place for
Florence's greats and perhaps
GIUSEPPE DE MICHELI: This is
the Cloister.
The room of "The Last Supper"
The huge place where
probably 300 monks gathered to
eat was that lowest place in
NARRATOR: Secretary General,
Giuseppe De Micheli points to
the water marks in the Cloister
where Vasari's "Last Supper" and
dozens of masterpieces were
Santa Croce is both a church and
museum of fine are.
Part of the allure of Florence
is seeing great works of art in
the very places where patrons
and artists intended for them to
be seen...
POALA VOJNOVIC: Santa Croce is
the pantheon of Italian greats.
Many great Italian men and women
are buried here.
We have Michelangelo, Galileo
Galilei, Machiavelli, Ghiberti
and an empty monument to Dante
NARRATOR: The Chimabue's
crucifix, Santa Croce's very
first piece of art, became a
victim of the flood...and a
POALA VOJNOVIC: The Chimabue's
crucifix was restored over a
ten-year time and it lost about
50% of its face.
When the work was restored it
became a symbol of resurrection,
it got to live again, it was
NARRATOR: Santa Croce is
restoring and protecting
treasures from future floods by
JANE FORTUNE: They have
literally taken every piece
that's precious, and they have
hung it-or put it up so high,
they made sure that it-that if a
flood came, that they've got a
mechanism that it will even
raise these things up all the
way up so that they could never
ever be destroyed by the flood
NARRATOR: In the cloister
where flood waters reached 22
feet high...
Felicie de Fauveau's monument,
restored by advancing
women artists in 2013,
Today, Florence is a vibrant
city.
It's charm lies in narrow
streets and impressive
architecture and art.
50 years later, the only
reminders of the flood are the
Antonia Bargollini still lives
in her family's home, it is
difficult to imagine it being
submerged in 22 feet of water.
JANE OFF-SCREEN: So it went
up to the terrace?
LINDA OFF-SCREEN: Say,
up to that?
Those windows were all covered,
Jane.
NARRATOR: Not far away,
photographer Nicholas
Swietlan Kraczyna is
now a distinguished professor at
Il Bisante School of Graphic
NICHOLAS KRACZYNA: I had no
intentions of ever staying
forever in Florence but because
of the flood, because of what
happened and after the flood,
seeing the city reborn I felt at
All the detail there, and there
of course it transfers here.
LINDA: Amazing!
NARRATOR: Il Bisante was
submerged in the flood.
Florence's art community.
Another founder, art historian
Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti
worked with
Mayor Piero Bargollini to raise
worldwide public awareness to
the needs of Florentine cultural
One of Ragghianti's most
memorable initiatives was the
JANE FORTUNE: Once the flood
came, he put out a plea to the
international community, to have
people donate works of art to
the city.
He kind of played on flood.
But in doing that, he got a lot
LINDA FALCON: He wanted to
restore ancient art but he also
wanted to restore this city is
NARRATOR: The municipality of
notable works by men and women
from all over the world.
They came with different styles
and various levels of talent,
united by a single promise
their works
would one day become part of
Florence's International Museum
The women artists who donated
became known as flood ladies and
they helped Ragghianti stage
shows and auctions, but the
dream of a new museum soon faded
away And the works disappeared
It would be decades before those
JANE FORTUNE: One of the
museum directors came to us with
found by women and she didn't
know they were in her storage.
works of art by women.
that.
NARRATOR: Jane fortune is the
founder of a global organization
known as advancing women
JANE FORTUNE: My quest is to
recuperate a vital part of
Florence's is unknown cultural
history and to
celebrate these invisible
women by making their works
NARRATOR: Florentines call her
Indiana Jane for her efforts to
PAOLA VOJNOVIC: In most
get to see too many female
artists.
I think Jane has helped in a way
NARRATOR: Success has come
from building relationships
between women museum curators
MANGNOLIE SCUDIELIA: I think
create new attention of these
NARRATOR: Advancing women
artists is credited with making
visible dozens of works by women
But now the focus was on the
flood and writing a book about
the forgotten works of the
contemporary women artists known
Restoration of their work was
ROSSELLA LARI: They were on
display for a short period of
time at the Palazza Vecchio and
the Florentines, not everyone
had seen them and one of the
first things I said to Jane and
Linda when I first met them was
storage.
That's the best thing we could
do.'
NARRATOR: Before the flood
restoration was considered a
man's trade but now it's a field
dominated by women artists like
ROSSELLA LARI: Women restorers
can retain lots of tings in
their heads, not just a few and
they can grasp each and every
meaning, they can get the whole
reasons that we felt that we
should do this project is
because these pieces have not
been seen.
And they are a part of history
that relates to these 1966
flood.
And we felt that this was a
selfless giving part, giving on
their part.
And we just felt that their
LINDA FALCON: Who are these
women artists?
What do they contribute?
NARRATOR: The search for the
flood ladies revealed that only
a few were still living.
Most had left lively legacies in
wondrous places, like the
mountainous village of Anticoli
From the late 20's it was a
village of artists known for the
beautiful young women like
LINDA FALCON: She started her
career on the other side of
the canvas.
She started as a model when she
first started she was
an illiterate beautiful
young woman,
and her husband painted her for
the entirety of his life in all
ways.
She became educated and she
NARRATOR: Today many of
Pasquarosa's paintings are found
at the civic museum of modern
art here...managed in part by
women were more important and we
have to consider something else.
That the husbands would exhibit
through their wives work.
For example, my grandfather
caring more about his wife's
success.
The two were an unbreakable
NARRATOR: Pasquarosa continued
to paint and after the flood,
was asked to donate her work.
"Dusty Miller" reflects her love
for flowers and fabrics and
LINDA FALCON: There were
Some of the greatest artists
working in Italy at the time
PAOLO BERTOLETTI [in Italian]:
Pasquarosa was a grandmother
NARRATOR: The search for
surviving flood ladies led to
Amalia Charde Dupree's studio
LINDA FALCON: Amalia Dupree is
an 80-year-old sculptress.
She says women are more likely
to risk and if you look at
history, the women artists who
succeeded were willing to get
NARRATOR: During WWII, the
Germans commandeered Dupree's
home, used it as a headquarters
and systematically went about
LINDA FALCON: This was
conscious destruction
And since that moment she
began to use art as a way
NARRATOR: After the flood,
commissions for her work many
were religious in nature, many
with themes of motherhood and
Her gift to Florence is called
'maternity'.
LINDA FALCON: And it's amazing
created is this woman with
her hands raised up in the air
holding a child.
NARRATOR: In Tivoli, just
outside of Rome, Fortune and
Falcone would encounter one of
the most remarkable, determined
GUIDI: Look how beautiful the
clay is to work, and the same
can be said about with the iron,
hard to believe, that looks
LINDA FALCON: One of the first
things I noticed about Stefania
is she is this tiny woman
with these tiny hands
and she is a sculptress.
And I said to
myself, that's what a sculptress
GUIDI: Look at the tools that
we have here: these are the
tools...
With this one you knead, look.
With this one you polish the
Well, now I think you can all go
Can you hear the different sound
from the wood, because I touched
the soul of the wood?
Instead you have to touch only
the bark!
JANE FORTUNE: There was a
piece out there that she had, I
guess, not worked on for a
little bit.
And she got all excited about
this piece.
She, I mean, all of a sudden,
you could just see the creative
juices, you know, turning in her
head.
And she got her chisel and
started chiseling.
Here were all the pieces of wood
on the floor, all around her
feet.
And they wanted her to stop, and
I don't think she sleeps an
NARRATOR: Guidi is a Marquis'
Daughter, married to her
creative equal, composer Michele
Paradiso, together they live and
create in a countryside home
surrounded by more than 800 of
STEFANIA GUIDI: Who am I?
I am a sculptor and engraver.
I have dedicated my entire life
created so many works that every
time I look at them, I can see
LINDA FALCON: She is very
secure in her work as well.
She says I dare anyone to come
in here and look at these
sculptures and say and that leg,
she said it pointing to a
sculpure, I dare anyone to say
NARRATOR: There is energy in
every corner of this home.
JANE FORTUNE: They then said
we were staying, we had to stay
for lunch.
Well, lunch is this wonderful
family affair.
And you know, over there, family
is the most important thing.
And also the most important
thing is the matriarch, the
woman, the head.
And they had the family there,
and they had, they had more
food, I mean, they could have
fed an army with all the food
they gave us.
They only spoke Italian,
you knew what they were saying.
I mean, you literally knew what
the flood ladies donated
at least 40 pieces of art
to proposed museum, not all were
masterpieces, all expressed a
And what of the museum?
Forty-eight years later this
The long awaited museum of
1900's opened in 2014 in Santa
Maria novella's evocative
The advancing women artists'
foundation, whose mission is to
safeguard and promote art by
women, a still hidden part of
Florence's heritage.
Set about restoring 31 of the
donated works by women,
languishing in storage in the
Today these flood ladies are
regarded as some of the most
significant 20th century women
POALA TRIOSE: I was completely
astonished.
So really for me it was a
pleasure.
RAIMONDA LEONE: Fiora, she was
really personable, all the
Florentine people, they love
color.
Because she was always full of
[Italian]
VIOLANTE BELLINI: She is so
funny so fantastic, she so
RAFFAELLA DE PASQUALE: She
she'd often say 'I know, I know,
what would happen with my
In fact to be here, to have her
sculpture here is very
NARRATOR: When the world
answered, it did so with
PAOLA VOJNOVIC: The power of
this city is that people come
from all over the world and I
think when they can, they do
NARRATOR: The world's answer
brought scientific
discoveries and restoration
JANE FORTUNE: Everything we do
today is because of that flood
because what they found they
could do by everybody sharing
NARRATOR: When the world
answered it brought selfless
giving by artists...women
artists...whose work would be
rediscovered, restored and
celebrated in a new book and on
LINDA FALCON: It's not in the
end about institution it's about
people and when people decide to
give value to something they can
NARRATOR: When the
world answered it
brought a message of love for
NICHOLAS KRACZYNA: So many
artists will often learn what
they need to learn take from
Florence and leave.
I stayed and I not only took
from Florence but I gave to
Florence.
I became one of the artists and
this is the place I feel at
And I think it was because I was
here at that moment of the
JANE FORTUNE: Florence really
awaked me to so many things.
It made me who I am today.
I left saying that I would
always, I would go back some day
and give back to that city in
some way.
I had no idea what that would
be.
But it's turned into a much
larger project than I thought it
just had a profound effect on
me.
And I think it does on most
ANNOUNCER: "When the World
Answered" is made possible
through the generous support of