Born under the sign of Leo

One of the most interesting realities of the underground youth culture is that of the first generation of African origins born and/or bred in Italy. Sons of immigrants of the former fifteen years, their principal matter is to build their identity, devided as they are between their culture of origin and Italy, the world in which they are growing up, actually the only one they really know. A world that tends to exclude them out of prejudice and pauperness. Their identity is defined mainly in opposition to a society that is not even aware of their existance and that seems to condemn them to ultimate marginality.

Many among those Afro-Italians, namely those who gather in Rome near to the Stadium, elected the hip-hop culture, which they think can better express black identity in western countries, and lets them say their uneasiness and rage. They look like Spike Lee characters, nevertheless they are undoubtly Roman citizens. The docu explores their world and the difficulty to integrate, telling the absolutely different stories of some of them.

Director: Cristiano Bortone
Photography: Maurizio Felli, Gianni Maitan, Giuseppe Pagano
Editing: Thomas Woschitz
Sound: Fabio Sartesanti, Renato Ciunfrini

Production: Orisa Films
Distribution: Orisa Produzioni

Original title: Nati sotto il segno del Leone
Original version: Italian
Year of production: 1998
Lenght: 50′