The submerged lightness film card

La leggerezza sommersa

The submerged lightness

Fulvio Mariani 

90' / 

Switzerland 

/ 2025

Screenings

Claudio Gazzaroli is a plumber by profession and an underwater filmmaker by passion. He engages with water both for his work and for his greatest interest: capturing the hidden beauty of the underwater world through his camera. The journey that director Fulvio Mariani takes with him begins on his doorstep, in the small lakes, ponds, and pools of the Canton of Ticino, where they both live and where Claudio, through years of diving, has collected astonishing images of underwater creatures, using a refined, self-taught filming technique. Other creatures include the haenyeo (women of the sea), legendary free-diving fishermen from Jaju Island, whom the two filmed in South Korea. Finally, they went to the depths of the cenotes (freshwater caves) of Yucatán, Mexico, to capture images of Chilean dancer Rose Molina Barrios and her free-diving maneuvers in water pierced by the rays of the sun. What these portraits have in common is the dreamlike and evocative beauty of the underwater world, in which everything seems light.

photo of Fulvio Mariani

Fulvio Mariani

FulvioMariani

Born in Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, in 1958, he is a director and producer specializing in mountain documentaries. At the Film Festival della Lessinia, he won the Lessinia d’Oro award with Grozny Dreaming (2008), and the Audience Award and MicroCosmo Jury Award with Iran Vite tra i vulcano (2012). His other films include Cumbre (1985), Siachen (2005) and The Patagonia Spider (2022). He founded the production company Iceberg Film.

photo of Fulvio Mariani

Credits

Producer

  • FULVIO MARIANI

Screenplay

  • FULVIO MARIANI

Photography

  • CLAUDIO GAZZAROLI,

  • FULVIO MARIANI

Editing

  • ALBERTO BERNAD

Sound

  • NICOLÒ MARIANI

Music

  • NIC GYALSON,

  • DAVIDE BOTTA