It was in this theater in Caltanisetta Sicily one night in June 2015.
It was hot, I remember it was very hot. My teammates Fulvio Capitanio, Antonella Sorge and I were sitting 3 rows from the back during the Kalat Nissa Film Festival. We had just walked off stage after receiving an award for the “10 Mountains 10 Years” project, and the “10 Mountains 10 Years” movie directed by our teammate Jennifer Yee was screened to a great crowd earlier that day.
A week later we would gather more than 100 teammates from 4 countries, with some from half way around the world. All those who made the journey were impacted by Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease in addition to other advocates, doctors and caregivers. It takes a special kind of courage for those already struggling these diseases to climb the highest active volcano in Europe. Mount Etna had only just erupted seven weeks earlier and the lava was still hot to touch and steaming in places. But, life had already given them mountains to climb and one more wasn't going to stop them. Where there's a will, there's a way. So, they came, they saw and they conquered it.
But on this night I had movies on my mind.
We were now past the half way point of the “10 Mountains 10 Years” project, and Jen’s movie documentary about it successfully toured the USA, and Europe then went on to win 28 awards. Sitting in my seat I wondered how the project would conclude. Would there be a documentary at the end, like Jen had created in the middle? We always thought there should be, and sitting there I decided that somehow, some way there would be. With that I leaned over to Fulvio and said, “I don’t know how but someday we’re going to sit in these seats again, and up there on the screen will be a follow up movie to the “10 Mountains 10 Years” film with you in it.”
“Someday Enzo we’ll see, but first we need to climb Etna.” and like so the seed of an idea was planted.
