White Shoe

ANIMATED SHORT FILM INSPIRED BY SALVATORE FERRAGAMO'S LIFE

If every chapter of Ferragamo’s real life story can be read as part of a contemporary tale, this is especially true of the episode of the shoemaker’s first creation: a pair of white shoes for his sister’s first communion, manufactured at the age of 9, with poor means over the course of a long, candlelit night. Mauro Borrelli, an artist whose stories intertwine magic, truth and fantasy, imagined this event in Salvatore’s life as the first step in the awareness of his powerful creativity.

The aesthetics and symbolism of German Expressionist cinema of the 1920s served as a strong inspiration for this project. Salvatore works in a room that stands as a metaphysical container, a symbol of the subconscious: hidden in the folds of our mind, its walls keep our imagination trapped, confining it.

Not many artists are able to climb over the walls of this prison of the mind, but young Salvatore “sees beyond”. He is able to do so with his imagination and this is how he constructs the outside world. He fills it with ideas, so many that the walls of the prison eventually fall like leaves from the branches.

Being creative means not only to imagine, but also to make things happen. A pair of white shoes made as an act of generosity, put together ignoring the technique and relying solely on his intuition: this is the critical, magical moment in our fairy tale, when Salvatore destroys the bars of his metaphysical prison. It’s as if he had an inborn instinct, a gift waiting to be set free. Salvatore Ferragamo’s foundation as a human being and artist is in the making of this first shoe: the rest of his creative genius will spring from this germ.

A movie written and directed by Mauro Borrelli

Cast: Reese Gonzales (Salvatore); Maci Christianson (Biancarosa); David Z. Stamp (Mastro Tomaia); Circus Szwaleski (Don Nero). Produced by Matteo Sapio; director of photography E. Gustavo Petersen; cast director Paul Dinh-McCrillis, CSA; scenography by Kody Busch; artistic supervision by Rick Heinrichs; character design by Jorge Jaramillo; art director Robert Hummel; costumes by Haleh Risdana; makeup by Afton A. Adams; line producer Tereza Zales; assistant director Ricky Lloyd George; vfx supervision Jasen ‘Jaz’ Nannini; music by Leo Z.

In association with Fotocomics Productions.