BLACK BLOCK a documentary film by Carlo A. Bachschmidt (2011 IT, 77′)
Director CARLO A. BACHSCHMIDT
Written by CARLO A. BACHSCHMIDT
Directors of Photography STEFANO BARABINO – HARALD ERSCHBAUMER
Editor ALESSANDRO PANTANO
Composer FRANCESCO CERASI
Associate Producer CARLO A. BACHSCHMIDT
Producer DOMENICO PROCACCI
Production Company FANDANGO
Genoa 2001
Repression is part and parcel of democracy – a power system that, along with legitimacy and consensus, needs to be controlled when a population or political group test the limits of their freedom. Genoa ’s G8 Summit in 2001 demonstrated this in the fiercest of ways.
As the G8 Summit drew to a close and the press and politicians had departed, 300 riot police stormed the Diaz School looking for members of the infamous Black Block. They found instead young activists, mostly students, teenagers and journalists from around Europe preparing to bunk down in the school gym. Undeterred, they unleashed a calculated frenzy of violence, beating both young and old, male and female indiscriminately. Those seriously injured were rushed to the hospital in ambulances, though soon after they were forced to join those who had been arrested and driven to the Bolzaneto detention centre where they were subjected to further abuse and degradation.
Through the testimonies of Lena and Niels (Hamburg), Chabi (Zaragoza), Mina (Paris), Dan (London), Michael (Nice), and Muli (Berlin), Black Block renders a firsthand account of those who experienced for themselves the violence in the raid on the Diaz school and their subsequent torture.
Several of them chose to return to Genoa for the trials of the police officers involved. Amnesty International called the results trials “The most serious suspension of human rights in western country since the second world war.”
