Founded in 2015 from the meeting of director Nicola Abbatangelo with entrepreneur Marco Di Antonio to tell stories of beauty, in 2016, in co-production with rai cinema, Moolmore realised ‘beauty’, a short film musical fantasy in costume, whose set reconstructs an imaginary London of the late 19th century. Beauty is entirely shot in English, with a British cast, in live sound, and is historically the first Italian film mixed with the Dolby Atmos Technique. Marco Di Antonio talks to us about present passions and future challenges.
Moolmore, an Italian company that focuses on valuable interventions. In what sense?
We are part of a world in which we know the price of everything but struggle to understand its value. The balance of supply and demand, in fact, does not provide a horizon of meaning on which to project the meaning of one’s choices, be they individual or social. At Moolmore we started from the end: innovation in content and transversal quality are attributes/declinations of the beauty we perceive as the fulfilment of our existence.
That sounds easy. But exactly, what do you do?
For example, we tell the essence of a Raphael masterpiece through the eyes of a 20th century Russian writer, cast in the shoes of the cleaning man of an original fiction produced entirely by us. What if it were a product? Or a company? Or an institution? An educational process? Communicating in a novel way the value that lies at the origin of every human action to make it perceivable as a source of meaning and a mechanism for individual and collective growth may well represent our passion. Thus, the events that we are able to conceive and realize, the education and entertainment initiatives that we design, and build are deeply rooted in the multidisciplinary experience of our partners and in the vocation to tell the story of the beauty that underlies the success of every reality, be it economic, cultural or social.
The story. Let’s talk about how you got here and why.
We believe that everything in life is the fruit of an encounter. So also, Moolmore was born from a providential meeting. Put together an evening at dinner – organized to discuss an opportunity in the school sector – a young director who wants to talk to the world about… beauty and an entrepreneur in search of an educational project aimed at understanding and enhancing talent: why not dare to imagine a production company capable of exploring new territories and discovering new paths in the creation of valuable projects and products? In the path that allowed us to discover the talents of the young filmmaker, we focused, not without effort, on several areas where our genuine innovation efforts could have been used to provide valuable contributions. The production of films, on which we initially focused our energies, allowed us to experiment with original ideas and processes to narrate reality.
Goals for the future: what horizons are you “admiring”?
We look with passion at the destiny of those who will inherit this land. This awareness pushes us towards the field of education and communication, two worlds with great potential to be discovered and exploited for the benefit of economic subjects and social groups, private production realities and public institutions.
What does ‘made in Italy’ mean to you?
When I try to crystallize in one word what the term ‘made in Italy’ arouses in me, I come across the apparently neutral term of ‘harmony’. The emphasis shifts from ‘making’ to ‘connecting’, selecting the appropriate elements, and placing them in the right relationship with each other. In the Italic ‘making’ I recognize the artistic tension (the root ar- is the same in harmony), the effort to unite, the symbolic power, the ability to give fulfilment to a complex work thanks to the proportionate connection of different and not immediately perceivable aspects as wonderfully complementary. This is not a simplistic process of contamination, nowadays dressed in the noble robes of innovation: behind the harmony of an apparently simple productive gesture is hidden the complexity of research and attention to detail that nourishes its own nature with the originality of ancient social and cultural traditions. Thanks to the sedimentation of individual action and collective feeling, that catalyzing force we call ‘creativity’ acts and consolidates in a surprising manner. I like to think of it as a form of ‘connection’ with the deep nature of our history, on the trail of the harmony to which we all, unconsciously, tend.
