In 2020, Charles Papa came up with the idea of the show SmallTalk, a cultural container on the road, produced by the Calliope Cultural Association, of which he is president.
SmallTalk is culture in motion, it is music and divulgation, a video container made of DJ-sets, dance, dialogues, and small unplugged pieces from the art world.
SmallTalk aims to promote, valorise, and educate through the creation of TV formats shared online. The program brings together professionals from across the Molise region to build a body of works made of music, cinema, theatre, radio, writing, painting, and any other form of art.
It also aims to culturally educate the audience through professional figures such as actors, singers, entertainers, athletes, that contributed to create the project. In short, the format tends to decontextualise the artist and location from the obvious, placing the effect of their art at the centre of the dialogue, enhancing what the end user receives from the cultural expression of an artist or place.
SmallTalk chooses to tell the story of the villages visited, presenting the art of the guests in the beating heart of the place. The movement of the camerassingles out the details and peculiarities of each space. Photography colours and enlivens the rooms and the participants. The guests brighten the village with their presence, making the images speak for themselves. With this choice, SmallTalk sends a unique message,”the village told by the village itself”. Charles Papa came up with the winning strategy to convey the concept: fast dialogues, lots of music, dynamic cameras, hand-held and ‘chronicle’ mode filming, and jump cut editing.
The program develops through different seasons: the first one is made up of seven episodes shot in seven villages, such as Petrella Tifernina, Ripalimosani, Tufara, Jelsi, Pescolanciano, Castel San Vincenzo, and Pietrabbondante. The episodes were produced by Mario Scatolone, from BigBox editions, and sponsored by the internet supplier Dimensione. Thanks to the contribution of entrepreneur Roberto Padulo, these first episodes were realised to complete the call of Tourism&Culture of the Molise region. In 2022, Charles Papa wrote three more episodes: Sepino, Trivento and Macchia D’Isernia. The project became an itinerant promoter of food & wine and of the territory. Support this time came from the gas and electricity supplier Metamer.
In December of that year at the University of Tor Vergata (Rome), part of the troupeheld a workshop at the Faculty of Anthropology of Cultural and Gastronomic Heritage with Prof. Ernesto Di Renzo. In January 2023, he held the same workshop at the Chiarini Library at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome and in March at the Le Torri library in Tor Bella Monaca. The workshops are curated by Mario Scatolone. The 14th of September 2023 a special event was held at the cinema hall of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia Foundation in Rome: a SmallTalk party, where guests were presented with a ‘best of’ the ten episodes, music, tastings and much more in the presence of the mayors of the villages.
For more artists HERE
