Author: Silvia Savorelli
Director: Silvia Savorelli
Country: Italy
Year: 2010
Duration: 27′

Subject: Heidi defines herself as a creator of bags made from recycled materials, Elisabeth as an illustrator of children’s books, Antonella as a creative consultant, and Martina oscillates between costume and prop designer and theatrical assistant director.
Yet for none of them is it easy to find a simple definition to describe their work. What do four women of such different ages and backgrounds have in common? They live in Bolzano, a symbolic border city in the heart of Europe, but above all they work from home, having built their workshop, office, and studio within their domestic residence. They are the new self-employed workers, flexible, no longer the “homeworkers” for the manufacturing industry.
The camera enters their homes, their workrooms, and records the daily work of four women who invest considerable energy and creativity in managing their time: divided between work calls and meal preparation, between project deadlines that force them to work at night and the fear of disturbing their partner’s sleep, also struggling when work invades domestic spaces such as the bedroom.
Outside the workrooms, life goes on, and archival images of other women who in the 1960s gained autonomy and freedom through work provide a counterpoint to this choral narrative about a different and little-known world of work.

Type: Documentary
Format: DVD
Language: Italian
Notes: Source
Project: Sandra Burchi and Silvia Savorelli
Photography and editing: Vincenzo Mancuso
Music: Stefano Bernardi
Production: Centro Documentazione ed Informazione della donna Frauenzentrum Bolzano
The film was produced as part of the research project “Working from Home. Survey on the Training Needs of New Self-Employed Women” funded by the European Social Fund and the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies.
The archival materials featured in the documentary are drawn from the Audiovisual Archive of the Workers’ and Democratic Movement and from Home Movies – National Archive of Family Cinema.
Availability: the video is available at the Badaracco Foundation (location V SAV)