Filmmaker Enrico Masi probes the human element of ITER
The ITER project has been the subject of multiple documentary films. Most have been technically focused overviews of the project made for TV. The 2017 documentary drew its tension and storyline from the technical and project management challenges ITER faced at the time, as well as from the global promise of fusion energy. But the latest documentary, , by Italian filmmaker Enrico Masi鈥攑remiering this week at the in Florence鈥攎ay be different than any film about ITER to date.
As a filmmaker, Enrico Masi has focused his camera on 鈥渃ultural issues of post-modernity and the social impact of 20th century and third-millennium phenomena,鈥 sometimes referred to as the Anthropocene, a geologic period in which human activity has begun to influence Earth鈥檚 ecosystems. His previous films, and , lend insight into how he might approach ITER, a project he has followed closely, and filmed, for the past five-plus years.
While ITER鈥檚 technology is at the inevitable core of nearly any story about ITER, Masi鈥檚 lens is likely to be equally directed toward the human element. As he has noted repeatedly while filming, the project鈥檚 unprecedented scale and engineering specifications are well-matched with the complexity of the multicultural collaboration that sustains ITER, which in turn reflects the intricate links between societal advancement, the need for energy, and planetary impact.
The result, filtered through Masi鈥檚 vision, is sure to be intriguing. At ITER, both the human and the scientific are truly terra incognita.