Alessandro Rossellini is the grandson of Roberto Rossellini (ROME, OPEN CITY), one of Italy's most prominent directors of Italian neorealist cinema. 

Alessandro is a photographer who struggled with drugs for years before becoming a drug rehabilitation counseler.  

He discusses why he wanted to make this documentary about his famous family. The film that delves deep into their past and present, and examines the ongoing impact of family relations and influence. 

Q:

Why did you want to make a documentary about your family?

A:

There are a couple of reasons- the original one is because I was reconstructing my life. 

I was clean from drugs for a few years, but my situation in other aspects of my life such as economically, wasn’t yet working or reconstructed. 

I have children, so I started to think about having a career again.

I was working mainly as a counselor/rehabilitator for a rehab that wasn’t paying me very much. 

But then getting into this project - I did think I had a great story by looking at the children of Roberto Rossellini, which was my father and his brothers and sisters…

I thought that this could also be something useful in my journey in recovery: To go and ask those questions I had and were important to me. 

Q:

Were you making this just film for yourself at first, or did you realize you wanted audiences all around the world watch this/to watch your journey?

A:

Even though I think I am a director that has a lot of respect for the audience, I didn’t think and wasn’t sure that I’d ever have an audience. I was hoping it could work out, but either way it would be something great for myself. 

Q:

Tell us about yourself- you’re the director of this film, but where do you fit in with this famous family?

A:

I am Roberto Rossellini’s first grandson.  

I was the son of the the first son of Roberto Rossellini. 

I wasn’t that far in age from my uncle and aunts. 

My father, who is his oldest, was only 21 years older than me. 

So, I pretty much grew up with them. 

And so I am an ‘insider’.  I am someone who knew the story; my personal version of it.

Q:

Did you learn a lot along the way of making this film?

A:

I did learn more by making this film, but I had a very clear hypothesis on what could be interesting for me and hopefully for the public. 

I was hoping this story would be symbolic for families in general.  The family constellation have things in common - there is always competitions, struggling, difficulties… so I thought it could have been a good topic and a universal topic. 

Q:

OK, that is very true. It especially does seem that recently people are coming forward with personal stories. 

But you have a very famous family name. And you actually created a word for it- a word sounds like a disease. 

A:

Yes, it is called 'Rossellinitis’ in English. It is what I realized I had. It is what I suffered from, and I still suffer from, even though now the difference is that it is clear.  It is the fact that I had values which were transmitted and inoculated like a disease -like a virus - from my grandfather.  He was about success and money.. and where you find yourself in the family. But it was also the fact that he felt relations with women were important, but they have a beginning and an end, and it's ok to have more than one in a lifetime. 

I was taught a lot of different things that were very confusing, and for me were hard to handle: the idea that if you’re in trouble you just need to make a ROME, OPEN CITY (laughs). How can you make a ROME, OPEN CITY? The truth of the matter is that you need the 2nd World War, and you need to have a vision of something that nobody else has done before. So it was impossible. I didn’t feel worthy - that’s why for me it was like a disease - it was something that was making me sick.

Q:

Interesting that this was your grandfather and not your father who ultimately impacted you.

Why did you feel such pressure from your grandfather?

A:

It’s because my grandfather was the strong figure in the family. The man that had a life bigger than life itself- compared to ‘normality’, whatever that means.  

So, we all thought that in a way that is what we all should have done in our lives. Or... I thought that was the common thought. 

When I started to ask the questions, other things came up. Nobody really wanted to say, 'Yes we all have this disease.’  But instead, they said the only one who was suffering from it was me.

Q:

Was your grandfather a genius?

A:

I don’t know what that really means. He’s somebody that had an original vision and was powerful and he was recognized for that.  I must say he was a revolutionary man in many ways- he couldn’t possibly do things that other people did-he didn’t believe in that. 

Family in Italy has a very specific meaning, and we also have laws for the bourgeois families that were way too tight for him, and too restraining for him.  

For example, Italians are very religious and he found that was something that could not be the only explanation. 

Or, politics.. he was free- he was a very free man. I don’t know if that’s an example of being a genius: For sure he had a way as being seen as special.   

Today, I have a very hard time saying who my grandfather is, because he was a very complex man. But I can say one thing - that he was a very free man. 

Q:

The members of your family who are in your film, and that you interview...were they willing to be interviewed, or was it difficult to get permission from them?

A:

My situation that was that I was the person in the family who had simply fucked up badly. I was the fuckup in the family. I needed help. So everyone was there 100% from the very beginning to see and hope that this would be something good for myself.

Q:

The most famous family member in the film is Isabella.  What was your relationship with her before and after making this film?

A;

Isabella was more than just an aunt for me- she was more like a parent. 

I lived for many, many years in New York, and she was the person who was closest to me, and she was the one who introduced me to work ethics, which was something like a father would do. 

And she had the ability to introduce me to this world, because she was already successful. 

Through her I was able to begin my career as an assistant photographer, which is something I have done for many years. 

Q:

Who else do we see in the film?

A:

Let’s go back to my intuition…My father was the oldest child from Roberto Rossellini.  Even though he had a very interesting life and was very successful as a producer and president of a big French company in Italy called Gaumont, which produced a lot of films, he does not see that as the most important thing in his life. Instead, the most important thing in his like is be the son, and preserve the memory of Roberto Rossellini. So he was this person that still today is fighting to bring the work of my grandfather to as many people as possible.  

Then we have Robertino (known as Robin), who was the first child from his Ingrid Bergman wedding. My father Renzo was from Marcella DeMarchis, who was my grandfather's first companion and wife, and then became my grandfather’s costume designer for films. 

Robin was this beautiful young man that maybe in my vision was considered too beautiful for my father to think he was intelligent.  He was so beautiful that my grandfather thought he could become gay.  We are talking about a different century. My grandfather was born in 1906.  So even though he was a very modern man, he was born in the last century and was very much a patriarch in many ways. 

Robin I think felt this pressure, and that pushed him towards being an internationally renowned playboy, mainly, and this is what he was known for.  So my question was, ‘How is that for him, and how does he feel about it? Is it right- my vision or not?’

And then there was these two wonderful figures - almost Shakespearian figures: Isabella and Ingrid: They are twins. Both children of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini. But one very incredibly beautiful - and also very smart. Very open and very courageous. 

And the other one instead was very shy, very smart, and very cultural. But she hid out from the pressure of society, and I thought that was interesting. Many people don’t know she exists. But a lot people know about Isabella Rossellini in the world today.

And then there was Gil, who was an Indian boy. Son of a great Indian director that my grandfather brought back from India with Sonali, his latest/ third wife.  My vision was that since he wasn’t a Rossellini, and sometimes unfortunately he was reminded of that, that he wanted to prove himself. His whole life was being a director and producer - and that consumed him. 

And unfortunately he had this very violent and voracious disease- a real virus that ate him alive piece by piece. Probably he got that because he injected a drug, and he had this obvious component of pain and suffering within. 

And Nur, another aunt, who is a fantastic beautiful figure of an Italian Indian woman that becomes a dancer; a very good and important dancer.  And at one point in her life she converts to Islam religion and she got married pretty much by proxy, and now she’s a very happy wife lives in the middle east- in Doha. Before this she was living in a very strict religious part of the world. 

I thought that this is an incredible story, to begin with. 

And I thought everything had to do with the power or the strength of Roberto Rossellini.

Either people wanted to be like him, or adored him enough to make his memory more important than their own self; or other ones that ran away and reacted in a way that they could not be themselves.

But even if you run away from a person, that person has had the power to make you run away. 

I thought that… I don’t know if everyone agrees, it could be a great story. 

Q:

I certainly did not know all of this about the Rossellini family 

This film is very human. 

Those scenes with your mother were beautiful and touching. 

Was that shot here in NYC?

A:

Yes, Brooklyn. 

Im very happy that she has seen it- and how central she is in the family and how important she is in my life, even though we passed many years without even talking or once or twice every year. She recently passed away in March, and from the nurses I heard from said that she wanted to see the film and then asked every day to see it - and to see ‘her parts’ in the film. Everyday she wanted to see that.  

Q:

What was the most challenging scene to shoot for you?

A:

The most challenging for me was is when I was more afraid, when I really had to push myself for the questions - that for sure was with Isabella. I was terrified, because I have so much respect for her and she can be very tough, and she is very intelligent, very strategic…

And I think it shows in the film.   

Q:

Where did the film first premiere?

A:

In Venice at the Venice Film Festival. And then in Canada. It has traveled a lot.

Q:

How was the premiere here at the DocNYC Film Festival?

A:

For me it was the most important part of the journey, because it is the most important market. We were very happy we could present such a small film inside this incredible documentary festival. We were all happy and also a little bit afraid of the reaction. But I must say it did well, we were happy - it had some interest so I’m grateful and extremely happy with how the film went thus far. 

Q:

And what was the audience reaction here at DocNYC?  Any questions or comments that you recall?

A:

Yes.  They wouldn’t let me go. We were supposed to clear the theater because another film was going to be shown right after. People weren’t shy at all. 

We had 2 shows -one on the 14th and second one on the 16th of November. On the 16th a class from a school in New York state came to see the film. They were a little shy at first, although one asked me how did this film change my relationship with my family- which was a great question. And then they waited for me with their teacher outside and they kept me for another 30 minutes asking questions. Then I found out their next homework assignment was to interview the family. So it was great. 

Q:

And what is the answer to that student’s question?

A:

OK, in the very beginning the American women - my aunts and my cousin, were not very happy with my questions and how I treated them.  But that changed with time, and I showed them a copy of the film before it was finished- I showed it to everybody in case they wanted me to change anything, and they did ask me to make some changes, but they actually made the film more lighter and more centered, more focused and better. 

But then they told me that they couldn’t see the film again, not so much that I was hurting them, but because in the film there is a lot of dead relatives and it was very painful for them to go through the story again. And I’m sorry for that. 

Now we’re fine. 

Q:

But you’re preserving family memories …  Otherwise they just go away. It’s hard to do, but its a good thing to have I feel. 

What do you hope audiences take away from watching your film?

A:

I hope through the honesty and generosity of my relatives they will get empathy and they will realize that families are families: Things happen to all of us. And then maybe it pushes them to try to not hide those feelings and those difficult questions under the rug, and maybe now be more sincere. 

But besides that, I just hope that makes them feel a part of this- that they can see themselves throughout the film. 

Q:

I think so- I feel no matter how famous or not, we all share this...

A:

Yes, because that’s only one side of it, and the relations is something else. 

Q:

And also if I can interject, the film was really wonderful to watch. It was enjoyable because I was very interested to see who was going to be shown next, and what’s going to come out.  Very well edited. 

A:

I had the best editor. 

I had also a young screenwriter that helped make the film with me. I had great help, fortunately. 

Q:

You have to with a film like this, I feel. You can’t tell your own story alone.

A:

Yes, exactly. It broadens your vision. Yes of course. 

Q:

What is the status of the film now- where are you showing it next?

A:

My last trip with this film, by choice, is going to be next week in Moscow. Its been 1 year & 2 months since I’ve been traveling with this film, I’m very happy and very grateful, but its time for me to begin work on my next project. 

I am only pushed to work on projects that are close to my life and my knowledge, so its going to be another film about conditioning: family conditioning, drug conditioning, and the capacity to free yourself from all of this.