We are pleased to announce that we have registered three domains as access points for news that we publish with the “pibnet“, in relation to our “home base”:

• https://www.valdifarma.toscana.it for the Farma Valley (halfway between Siena and Grosseto)
• https://www.collinemetallifere.toscana.it for the Colline Metallifere
• https://www.maremme.it, without .toscana since we are considering also the Latium part of Maremma.

In any case, ouro range of operations is a bit wider, as explained in https://www.pibinko.org/places/.

At this stage the three sites are a plain redirect to pages in mappare.org, which in turn combine the interactive masp from our atlas with other posts in the network. If you like the idea and you would like to collaborate, we can improve it.

For more information: micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228.

Title track:

We are pleased provide a and abridged translation of the press released issued last week about the SA.MU.R.A.I. project. With the pibinko.org network, in addition to being part of the project proposal team, and creating the acronym, we are providing support to the management of the project. Also, we have proposed the “off-residency” concept, in which we will be proposing also some of our historical initiatives. Stay tuned! -The project web site is: https://www.samurai-rmt.it

For more music-related initiatives in the pibinko network: https://www.pibinko.org/music-and-rhymes/

March 16, 2026, Ponsacco (Pisa) – SA.MU.R.A.I., the free musical training and residency program is starting to roll. Following the open call, which saw the application by 68 young artists between 18 and 35, residing in Tuscany, and the subsequent online and in-person selection phases, on March 16 the residency had its official opening, with fifteen students involved, from all Tuscan provinces.
The selection was meant for individual musicians, and not for existing bands. This choice will encourage the cross-over of different artistic paths and the development of new collaborations. In fact, the participants will get to know each other during the residencty, living and working together in the Camugliano Estate, a historical venue in the county, in the municipality of Ponsacco, about 30 minutes south-east from Pisa.
The project will proceed through December, helping the participants to develop ther artistic and professional profiles. The artits will be coached by a team of senior experts, chosen to combine a high-level musical training with a hands-on approach to working in the musical sector today.

The director is Matteo Zanobini, founder of Picicca
Management, an Italian company operating in the management and promotion of independent music, and reknown for the quality of its projects, including above all Brunori SAS and Lucio Corsi. The fifty training days represent the core of the residency, with activities focused on the development of professional and artistic skills. There will be a first phase between March 16 and May 22, with weekly sessions. After the Summer break, the residency will resume from Sep. 28 and Oct. 9, and then from November 16 to November 20. The experience will end with a concert at the PARC in Florence in December.

Next to the training, there will be an interdisciplinary and cross-cutting program of activities. This has been conceived to extend the training beyond the boundaries of the estate (and of the musical sector), and to create a liaison with cultural and professional activities in a wider territory.

The Samurai project was created by a partnership composed by Salty Music APS and Toscana
Produzione Musica, two subjects with a wide experience in the design and management of cultural projects, in training, and in live music.
SA.MU.R.A.I. is funded by Regione Toscana as a part of PR FSE+ Toscana 2021–2027 and is one of the musical residencies supported by Giovanisì.

For more information: micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228.

In the context of the uni*rural* 2025-2026 program, and on our line of documentation since 2007 of lesser-known aspects, in particular in rural areas, we are inviting you to take part in a survey which focuses from looking for “stuff” to folks who are documenting stuff: we are looking for documentary makers and directors, with their works in rural/marginal areas. We are adding to the survey a prize which, possibly in the wake of the recent Academy Awards we would like to assign to the “best non-supporting tractor”.

If you are in a hurry and you know somebody who made a movie or a documentary on a lesser-known location, please write to segreteria@unirural.org or +393317539228. If you have ten minutes please read on. We also recommend, on the same topic, the TV9 interview on Nov. 18 on the first “Jug Film Festival per le Colline Metallifere” (click here). This was considered interesting by the audience due to the presence of Mauro Tirannosauro and Jefferson the punk emu.

Where does this start from?

The idea for the survey spawns from the case of Tatti, Southern Tuscany, 209 residents, close to Massa Marittima, circa 100 km South of Florence, and 200 km North or Rome. Over a period of five years, we have noted at least four documentaries: 2021, Carlo Simeoni – Volere è Podere, 2023 Le api di Tatti, by Federico Santini, 2025 Ruedi Gerber, Tatti, paese dei sognatori (Tatti, the village of dreamers), 2026 – Susan Gluth – “Wenn Toskana-Auswanderer älter werden” (“When expats in Tuscany get old”).

These projects had different types of development and distribution, but all have in common the idea of telling the story of a small village and its people.

For the residents in the area, the fact of their village receiving such a level of attention is associated to the uniqueness of their place. The film coverage also gives a sort of “moral support” for communities living not in the most troubled parts of Italy, but with a number of open issues in terms of availability of services and resources to support a community.

But…how unique is this uniqueness? Since we monitor our main area of operation (Maremma and the Metalliferous Hills, around one quarter of Tuscany), we see that there are periodically video reports and documentaries in other locations…are they peculiar but less unique? Or…if a community lives in a place which has no documentaries about it, will it have less value? Furthermore, in the development of a marginal community, is it better to be featured in a documentary, to become the location for non-tourist productive facilities, or to be the home village for a Nobel prize? We need to see what is around…

(Three random cats. They are unrelated to the topic, but they improve the positioning of this article in the meta-verse)

Do you know of a feature film or a documentary about a lesser-known/marginal place?

If you live in such an area, and you have produced a documentary, or a film, about your place, or you know somebody who did this, please write to segreteria@unirural.org or +39 3317539228.

Concerning the definition of “lesser known” or “marginal”: we do not intend to draw a hard line on e.g. the number of residents, or refer to parameters used in studies etc, since this might end up excluding interesting works. We are in any case considering villages, valleys, bays, etc.. places with a geographic identity.

We would like to learn about these projects and provide visibility to them through our network. As for other “surveys” we will have a map and some articles (https://www.mappare.org/atlante/).

All responses will be advertised and could become part of collaborations, events, reviews, and more initiatives within the uni*rural* 2025/2026…we will see!

Duration of the survey and awards/mentions

There is time to submit your entries. We aim to present the results around mid-December. If you can send your entries by mid-September we have time to organize the presentation, and possibly assign prizes and mentions (if you would like to become a sponsor: segreteria@unirural.org or +393317539228).

For the moment we are considering the “Best Supporting Tractor” role, and other categories relating to rural aspects of life.

Selection Criteria

If we were to define these a priori, we will be in falling in the trap of “perceived objectiveness” of a documentary. Please send your entries, then we will have a look. As for our participatory civic works atlas (https://www.mappare.org/aplc, launched in August 2025), it will be interesting to consider two extremes, which sometimes blend. On one side we expect works produced with “local blood, sweat, and tears”, and no film commissions. On the other side we expect works which are conceived away from the places they portray.

We are aware of cases where the director and all of the production team is born and raised in a village, and other cases where the “driving force” of the prodution is not local. This have a very different impact on the audience, and on the territories. Say…: I came on vacation from Scandinavia to Poggio Marcellone close to Ratanzano, in the heart of Campania and I saw the sun for the first time in 43 years. I had 12 milion euro left over from a patent deal with some DotCom folks, so I made a documentary with a soundtrack by Randy van der Knaufen. He is the first violin in the Rantzburg symphonic orchestra. So Poggio Marcellone is nicer than Rocca Frandaglia which is 6 km away. And the sunset is better.

At the end of the day, we are not expecting this modus operandi to change. We do not even want to say what is better. We would just like to contribute to give a little more visibility to projects which have less visibility opportunities, but maybe work with the same spirit of those who have more of exposure.

For more information or comments

segreteria@unirural.org or +393317539228.

(Jefferson, the punk emù , during a pause on the set of “barefoot in Melissano”)

P.S.

With the pibinko.org network we have produced many short movies and interviews, so we have a lot of footage https://www.pibinko.org/videos/…to date, the most structured documentary we made is the story of 20 folks from three villages who went to Chicago to play their ancient games- https://www.pibinko.org/palla-21-a-chicago-e-ritorno-trailer/. So… we still miss our own contribution to a really local project. Let’s see if 2027 bring new material for our video manifesto…

Closing track:

As we prepare the uni*rural* presence in Murci (Southern Tuscany) for the Piccola Fiera del libro/Buchmesse (March 29, 2026), we have started to select and tidy up (er…tidying up is maybe an overstatement) a few items to bring. At the fair the the pibinko.org network will be represented by Jack O’Malley and Wolfgang Scheibe aka Tattistampa. They will be there both with their book lover/authoring hats and with their entertainer hats.

To tune in with the event, we also considered the idea of preparing some graphic design combining the “Jug” paradigm, which we started to use in 2018 for music (http://www.jugbandcm.it), and then extended to other initiatives (such as “trading” in 2023 our film festival, ecc). So: here we are with the “Jug Library dalle Colline Metallifere“…our network’s “distributed library”).

To start with, this is drawing mostly from the “reading” section of Stuff-o-teque (https://www.pibinko.org/stuff-o-teque/), but we are planning also to embed contributions from other colleagues…stay tuned.

If you are interested to share items with the JLCM (this does not mean that you have to physically give them to us, but at least we need to add them to our catalog)…books, magazines, maps, and other stuff which involves reading, please write to segreteria@unirural.org or 3317539228.

For more information: micalosapevo@pibinko.org o +393317539228.