Naples: The Crisis Artists
00:14 to 0:22
Luigi de Magistris Mayor
Naples survives economically largely on tourism. This is one of my main concerns.
00:34 to 00:43
Maurizio Barracco
Manager
Naples - you either love it passionately or you hate it just as vehemently. It is not an easy city.
00:58 to 01:09
Bud Spencer
Actor
When you grow up in Naples in the Santa Lucia, you know that there's no better place in this world.
1:18 Naples: the city at the base of Vesuvius. Living in the shadow of this deadly presence shapes the attitude here. Live for today is their motto.
One of the most beautiful villas in the upmarket area of Posillipo has belonged to the aristocratic family of Barracco for generations. Despite the surrounding modernity, here one feels the radiance of days gone by. For centuries, Naples was the capital of the kingdom - and its residents are proud to assert their difference to Rome.
01:51 to 02:04
Maurizio Barracco
Entrepreneurs
1:52 If you want to define Naples, then Naples is, genetically speaking, cosmopolitan. It begins with the Greeks, then came the Romans and later the Spaniards and the French. Rome has always only had the Pope.
02:05 to 02:11
Gioacchino del Balzo
Consultant
2:05 Yes, it is enshrined in our DNA that we are very open to foreigners.
02 12 - 02:23
Maurizio Barracco
2:13 We are open to all cultures, even today. Consequently the largest Chinese community in Italy lives here. It is this openness to the world today.
02:23 to 02:32
Chiara Barracco
Cultural manager
2:25 The world is black and white, but with many shades in between. Isn’t that fascinating?
02:47 Ciccio Merolla knows the dark side of Naples. The cult rapper hangs out with fellow artists in the heart of the city, in the famous Gran Caffe Gambrinus - the oldest coffee house in Naples.
03:02 Naples is not conceivable without music, Merolla says. He is not interested in writing music about heartache, however, but genuine social criticism.
03:11 to 3:41
Ciccio Merolla
Rapper
3:15 In Naples it is a bit like the rotten mussel beds. The rotten mussels are kept in brackish water. The same is done in our ghettos. It leaves a part of the population completely isolated.
3:33 The result is almost automatically a state within a state and that's a big disadvantage for this city.
03:43 Ciccio Merolla grew up in the infamous Spanish Quarter. It is here that he set his latest track. It is a true story, dedicated to his best friend.
03:55 to 4:17
Ciccio Merolla
Rapper
Suddenly I saw him lying on the ground. The bullet was not for him. But in this place battles are fought, because in the side streets rival gangs live. This area is the Gaza Strip of the Spanish Quarter, so to speak.
4:28 to 4:40
Ciccio Merolla
I didn’t think he would die. I thought he would be taken to hospital.
But the bullet had struck at the heart. He died right in front of this building.
04:49 to 05:11
Ciccio Merolla
Rapper
These areas here have been abandoned by all institutions. If something happens, one turns to the boss. Anyone who calls the police is regarded as an enemy.
05:08
It is called ‘Il Sistema’, the system. It is controlled by the Camorra, who monitor everything.
OT. 5:14 to 5:31
Ciccio Merolla
The shops here around us that need to get their goods must procure them in the way the system dictates. With that builds a chain reaction. The system is so convoluted and tangled that they can’t resolve it. There is no social consciousness.
05:34
Piazza San Domenico. It isn’t very far away. And yet it is very different.
05:39 to 06:07
Gioacchino del Balzo
Consultant
5:42 This is - historically speaking - one of the main squares in Naples, because it reflects the cultural diversity. Here is the beautiful church from the time of Anjou
° then a monument from the time of the Spanish viceroys –
° and a noble palace that once belonged to my family - this was created here by the first Grand Lodge Master, Prince di Sangro.
06:09 The palace of Duke Balzo’s family is a Renaissance palace in the historical centre of Naples. The family has a thousand year old history.
06:22 to 06:30
Chiara Barracco
Cultural manager
6:24 This is Spaccanapoli. It is a famous avenue, so-called because it actually cuts the city into two parts.
06:39
With her family, Chiara Barracco has launched the cultural initiative "Naples 99”. The idea is to not only protect the cultural heritage, but also make it accessible to the public. Chiara says that one characteristic that defines the city is the strong social mix of downtown Naples. Here rich and poor have always lived next door to each other.
07:07
In the narrow streets you can feel happiness, imagination and a penchant for the macabre.
07:20
Not all local icons are obvious to outsiders at first glance. The locals swear on the power of the skull: it brings good luck - and not just in the lottery.
OT: 7:30 to 07:47
Chiara Barracco
Cultural manager
For us, the skull is not just a symbol for death. Death is part of our lives. We have a good relationship with them. And that helps make many things easier.
07:51
Naples has a long journalistic tradition. In 1892 the journalist Matilde Serao founded the paper, "Il Mattino".
08:02
In the editorial offices of the newspaper works Rosaria Capacchione. The journalist has been living under police protection. Her specialism is the business of the Camorra.
08:13 to 8:40
Rosaria Capacchione
Anti-Camorra journalist
8:15 They call me persistently. I think, however, I am providing them with a personal history, because I only report on things I've seen. My starting point is that I am convinced that the most important aspect of the Mafia, and thus the Camorra, is the economic aspect. The driving force for all the violence is money. The structure of the clan is focused on growth.
QUESTION: 08.40
How many times have you been threatened?
8:43 to 8:48
Rosaria Capacchione
Often, Very often. But I'm still alive.
QUESTION: Are you not afraid?
8:51 to 8:54
Rosaria Capacchione
At first, but no more.
09:03
Downtown in Scampia, the police are on an operation to uncover the latest drugs deal.
09:14
Chief Superintendent Michele Spina leads the operation. Scampia - made famous by the award-winning Mafia film ‘Gomorrah’ - is notorious for arms and drug trades. Here there is a permanent state of emergency. Drugs are nowhere as common as here. The commissioner explains that the fire brigade also help with busting the drugs ring in Scampia.
OT: 9:41 a.m. to 9:56 a.m.
Michele Spina
Chief Commissioner, Scampia
Here, the dealer usually sits.
° Through this slot, the exchange takes place. Well: Drugs for cash.
° In this bag there were drugs. Now the people have cleared out.
10:05 to 10:20
Michele Spina
Chief Commissioner, Scampia
They were dealing here yesterday.
Here was also an iron door. Here they have handled the drug trade. We have removed them. Now they have retreated further inside.
10:35
Whenever the police discover barricades of this kind, they are removed by the fire department. The commissioner admits that it is an uphill battle.
10:42 to 11:11
Michele Spina
Chief Inspector Scampia
Besides this drug hub - the house they call the Smurfs - there is now only one other in Scampia. Four years ago there were still twenty. The rest have already been dismantled.
11:00 This protected position inside here allows the dealers to position guards. They protect themselves from being accessed by the police.
11:13 to 11:37
Michele Spina
Chief Inspector Scampia
In addition, the organised crime obstructs this gate.
Whoever lives here in this building can’t go in and out as he wants. Everyone has to make himself known. Only then will the Camorra open it and let them in. The people here have no keys to the house. The criminals will exclusively control access to the building.
11:39
It means that law-abiding citizens become prisoners of the Camorra. Whoever lives here has been abandoned by the state and is left overwhelmed by the surrounding crime.
11:50
While the firefighters removed the bolt, plainclothes police have raided the house. In one of the elevators, they have found what they were looking for.
12:10 to 12:50
Michele Spina
Chief Inspector Scampia
These are bags with capsules containing heroin and cocaine. Each capsule is equivalent to a single dose, which is passed on.
12:25
Here the sale of drugs is recorded.
12:37
The capsules here are filled with cocaine.
The whole lot should be about one kilo. Each dose will cost around 15 €. That is worth quite a bit.
12:58
The police also regularly monitor the Scampia’s skyscrapers, known as “the sails” because of their silhouette. While they are considered as an architectural highlight in Naples, they are quickly deteriorating into a symbol of crime and social neglect.
13:18 to 13:55
Rosaria Capacchione
Anti-Camorra-Journalist
The cancer of Naples was the severe earthquake in 1980. Since then, this already notorious housing estate has been swamped by homeless people. Many people came from the provinces. They often came from degenerate, criminal areas. And almost all came here. Thus, a crowded ghetto has formed. The masses have taken possession of everything. Basements, garages. Just about everything.
13:57
Some time ago the city administration started to resettle the people. Yet many have remained, protected by the counter state, the Camorra. They don’t pay water, electricity or gas bills. There is a social fund for widows or wives of detainees as well. Protection money instead of taxes is the motto here.
14:20 to 14:48
Rosaria Capacchione
Anti-Camorra journalist
If an entire neighbourhood - about 250,000 people - live from the drug trade - then in the end there are 250,000 people, even if they don’t want to, depending on the company Camorra. Because this so-called “company” gives them work. It allows them to rent an apartment illegally and it guarantees a range of services. It is all illegal, but they help the families.
14:50
Since May 2011 Naples has had a new mayor. Luigi De Magistris - ex-prosecutor and political newcomer - had a landslide victory. Now he is determined to clean up this city.
15:02 to 15:24
Luigi De Magistris
Mayor of Naples
The Camorra - like the other mafias - have not been defeated, because they have close links to politics, the authorities and the economy. As mayor I will end any relationship between politics and the Camorra. Then I will create jobs and focus my attention on our culture and the social sector.
15:33
On a support list for the new mayor, the author Emilia Leonetti has also run for election. Her concern is primarily the young, which in Naples present a big challenge, especially primary school children.
15:46 to 16:09 01:20
Emilia Leonetti
Author
One of the major problems of Naples is that many children of primary school age already no longer attend classes. We need to tackle this. For these children grow up with the laws of the streets and therefore do not learn how to deal respectfully with each other.
16:26
An orchestra rehearsal in the troubled district of Sanità. It is a flagship project under the banner, “Making music together against social misery”.
16:34 to 16:43
Antonietta Giordano
Mother
My son has played music for three years. And he has loved it. For my birthday he specially prepared a surprise serenade.
16:45
"The Other Naples" is the name of this project: the music brings together children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.
16:52 to 17:12 02:22
Nunzia Girone
Mother
It's wonderful. For my son and myself. For him music is everything. He'd rather go into rehearsal than go to school. I hope the music helps them all later in life, because our district is a very difficult one.
17:25
After the rehearsal 14-year old Vincenzo heads for home. He tells his mother about the preparations for the next concert. Recently, the youth orchestra has even performed in the world-famous opera house in Naples, San Carlo. Nobody here could have dreamed such a thing could happen. The unusual music project, based on the successful model of the Venezuelan José Abreu, has made such things possible.
17:48
The Generoso family has high hopes for the orchestra. Their prospects are poor. Vincenzo’s father, a mechanic, has been unemployed for a long time. His mother finds part time work wherever she can.
18:01 to 18:16
Antonio Generoso
Father
18:02 I started working at age nine. I went partly to school and partly went to work. It was not easy at that time in Naples. My parents were workers. There was little time for education.
18:17
Vincenzo’s parents want their children to have a better future. Especially one that does not consist of the Camorra and drugs. Their son thinks the same way.
OT: 18:27 to 18:43
Vincenzo Generoso
When I play in the orchestra all my other thoughts go away. I just think about the notes on the music sheet. I hope my life will be even better than this here. I want to play in a famous orchestra.
18:42
The entire family hold high hopes that the orchestra can bring their community together.
18:48 to 18:59
Rosaria Generoso
Mother
When the children leave the house, I'm scared every time. Because with us anything can happen here, from one moment to the next.
19:05
Sanità is one of the oldest district of Naples. Here you can experience the pure Neapolitan culture, but also poverty and social hardship.
Eusebio Brancadisano is a retired top executive. He has come here, together with friends, with the task of improving the living conditions of the people. Their first project was this garden.
19:30 to 19:59
Eusebio Brancadisano
L'Altra Napoli
If anyone considers only the size of the garden, it is ridiculous. However, considering that this is the only green area for a neighbourhood with 38,000 people, things look different. At the opening of it one woman told me that she has lived here for sixty years now. She had never noticed the garden. Now this woman looks out from her window at orange trees.
20:01
This sculpture of the great actor Totò is also down to Brancadisano. However, he has bigger ideas. For here film history was written, he explains to one employee.
20:12 to 20:38
Eusebio Brancatisano
L'Altra Napoli
Here we want to build a teaching path. We want to show the history of those movies that were filmed in this part of town. A real cultural path with information columns about the famous movies. Just think of Sophia Loren or the comedies of the great Totò – here, in a famous scene, he threw his furniture out the window. And this path will lead through the whole district.
20:51
Here in Sanità people are proud that they have preserved their typical rural character. They are keen to persuade people that Sanità is the quintessence of Naples.
21:06
The street altars and saints are not to be missed. A visit to the butcher Ciro Ferriero is also a must.
21:16
Those who buy from here don’t come just because of the excellent quality of the products, but because for generations it has been a duty. Butcher Ciro makes a weekly contribution for the poor. Yet most people also come here because St. Anthony is a family heirloom.
21:34 to 21:58
Ciro Ferriero
Butcher
People come into our shop and bring Holy Gifts as thanks, because he has healed their pain or their operation went well. One must know that St. Anthony grants thirteen mercies every day. And one of them is always something special. So he helped De Magistris become mayor. One has to believe firmly in it, then the saint will direct everything.
22:08
It isn’t miracles, but art and modern structures that the city planners of Naples have set their sights on. They want to build about a dozen new metro stations to facilitate more tourists.
22:22
Most tourists come here by boat. Eight million passengers a year are registered in the port city.
An important economic factor for Naples is also the cargo port. Even during the crisis years of 2008 and 2009 it was achieving positive numbers. Seventy percent of the container traffic deals with the Far East. Goods of all kinds come from China. The board of directors of the Port Authority has ambitious plans for expansion.
22:52 to 23:22
Luciano Dassatti
Head of the Harbor
A new port should be built here. Namely with public and private funds. The public ones come from us. The so-called private ones on the other hand come from the Chinese government. Specifically from the Chinese shipping company Cosco. They have already confirmed their interest, because they need a dock for one million containers. Currently we turn around 530,000 containers. In the future there will be more than a million.
23:24
At the harbour the patron saint of Naples, San Gennaro, watches over it, protecting it from Vesuvius.
23:40 South of Naples sits Castellabate. This is where the entrepreneur Prince Granito Pignatelli di Belmonte lives. The castle of the Neapolitan family was used during the Bourbon period as a hunting lodge. Its guests at that time also included the king.
Today, parts of the castle function as a hotel.
24:04 The portrait gallery is lined with busts of historical aristocratic Italians, including previous cardinals and the pope.
24.11 Although the nobility of Naples played a revolutionary role in the Enlightenment his family is now of little significance, the prince complains.
24.18 - 24.37
Angelo Granito Pignatelli di Belmonte
Entrepreneur
The aristocracy should have participated more in political life. They haven’t done and that was a serious mistake. These impromptu politicians have closed ranks, and have let in neither the bourgeoisie nor the nobles. This was a tragedy for our country.
24.40
Among the lands belonging to the Prince Belmonte is the small island of Licosa. It is a nature reserve with miles of pine forests.
24.50 Protecting all of this from speculators, arsonists and other criminals is the biggest concern of the Prince. To this end he readily accepts the necessary police protection.
25.00 - 25.20
Angelo Granito Pignatelli di Belmonte
None of this is really ours. We're only the stewards of what the ancestors have left us. Sometimes it is very hard to do our duty, because that also means making sacrifices. And many people don’t want to make any sacrifices. They prefer to sell everything and live in the Bahamas.
25.29
Carlo Pedersoli, better known as Bud Spencer, is the son of a Neapolitan family of industrialists. The legendary movie hero has residences in many countries, but loves his hometown more than anywhere else.
25.49 - 26.18
Bud Spencer, actor
Naples is, for me, the opposite of everything that is generally said today about the city. If you live here, then you know there is no better place in the world. If you go to the boulevards, if you think of Vesuvius, which is close enough to touch, and when you see the sea and the entire Gulf: then you know this is a unique place.
26.19
The 81 year old movie star and author still receives fan mail and gifts from his supporters.
26.30
Spencer, however, doesn’t intend to retire anytime soon. He is working on a new project. It is a love letter to his town - he says.
26:55
The title of the CD: “Futtetene” - ie, "fuck it".
27:02
It’s message? No matter what happens, take it easy.
27.13 - 27.16 12:30
Bud Spencer
Film legend
”Fuck it” - my philosophy of life.
27.25
Out on the streets of the city, rubbish disposal happens promptly at midnight. In the poorer parts of the city it is a constant battle to keep the streets safe and tidy. A clean Naples, free of rubbish, is one of the main concerns of the new city government.
27.40 - 28.00
Luigi de Magistris
Mayor
Once the waste is disposed of in the streets, it is easy for Naples. Because the city does not need a marketing strategy to show that she is beautiful. She is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Naples will show its beauty to the world again. We are working on it.