The Sedona International Film Festival is featuring our documentary film Vendemmia as the final film in its four-week Sustainable Tourism Film Series. We will be traveling to Sedona to host the screening personally. Vendemmia, which explores the efforts to balance environmental sustainability in the Cinque Terre of Italy, will show on Thursday, Sept. 29 at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre at 4 p.m. The screening will be followed by a live Q&A discussion with the two of us.

“We are honored to end our Sustainable Tourism Film Series with the incredible Vendemmia,” says Patrick Schweiss, Director of the Sedona International Film Festival. “Not only is Cinque Terre in Italy a stunningly beautiful place, it faces many of the same challenges in sustainable tourism that we face here in Sedona. Additionally, their winemaking region is a reflection of our winemaking region here in the Verde Valley and reflects the same issues we are dealing with here as well. It is such an important and timely film for our current conditions here, and it will be even more special having the filmmakers — Sharon Boeckle and Krista Lee Weller — here in Sedona to host the film and Q&A and give us updates on where Cinque Terre has come since the making of this film.”

Krista Lee Weller and Sharon Boeckle on location in the Cinque Terre in 2008

More than ten years ago, we set out to document the challenges of the residents of the Cinque Terre of Italy, who still make wine by hand in terraced vineyards, as their ancestors have done for over 1,000 years. We quickly discovered far more than an ancient winemaking tradition; we discovered a beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Site struggling to achieve a sustainable tourism that could withstand the pressures of three million annual visitors. In today’s modern world, those tourists are needed to keep the local economy going, but they also inadvertently threaten the history, environmental beauty, and traditions that are attracting them in the first place.

That’s the challenge of sustainable tourism—it’s not an easy balance to strike. What we witnessed ten years ago involved the conflicts of competing interests, an incredibly delicate environment in need of constant maintenance, and political motivations that create tension among the locals. Unfortunately, not much has changed in ten years, and some of our friends featured in the film or living in the villages say that these issues have even been exacerbated over the years.

Vendemmia explores these issues through the eyes of some of its extraordinary residents, including a new-generation winemaker still using the ancient techniques and traditions of his ancestors in the fight to preserve his culture. It also explores the sometimes-radical measures taken ten years ago by the Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre to create sustainable solutions for the preservation and restoration of the Cinque Terre’s economy and culture.

Vendemmia Behind-the-Scenes Photography Courtesy of: Uta Theile

At the time of filming (between 2008 and 2012), strict measures to curtail and control influences of tourism were put into place by the Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre, often to the dismay of locals who desired the freedom to choose for themselves what service and products were offered to visitors and whether international retail and hotel companies should be allowed to build within the villages. While making Vendemmia, we bore witness to the cultural and political struggles which took place, but now ten years later, those struggles are still ongoing.

Some residents of the Cinque Terre say that the community now has its eyes on approaches taken by other Italian tourist magnets, such as Venice, which placed a ban on large cruise ships and more recently announced a limit to the number of visitors permitted into certain piazzas and iconic attractions in the city. To regulate access, the city added electronic turnstiles and entrance fees applicable for any “day trippers,” the name applied to visitors who come just for the day, snap photos for social media, and leave, contributing to the economy far less than tourists who stay for longer periods of time.

Officials in Venice also say that effort is needed to offset the economic loss incurred by these large groups of day tripping visitors, and that long-term, sustainable strategies need to be implemented to preserve a fragile ecosystem threated by excessive tourism. We see the Cinque Terre as very similar to Venice in that respect. Whether Venice or the Cinque Terre, unfettered access to an area not structurally designed to withstand that kind of traffic is unsustainable. Something’s got to give. These areas not only need sustainable solutions for managing the high number of tourists, but they also need to strike a balance between the influx of tourism and what types of tourism they want to allow without sacrificing a quality of life for the locals. But when locals depend on that tourism, the question then moves from “Are control measures needed?” to “Who decides what those control measures will be?”

Vendemmia DVD jacket and marketing collaterals designed by Bluzette Carline

Vendemmia will be shown at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Thursday, Sept. 29 at 4 p.m. Tickets are $12, or $9 for Film Festival members. For tickets and more information, please visit the festival’s website or call 928-282-1177. Both the theatre and film festival office are located at 2030 W. Hwy. 89A, in West Sedona.

SHARON BOECKLE

IT'S A WRAP!

KRISTA LEE WELLER

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Sharon Boeckle founded Sila Productions after more than fifteen years experience in the study and teaching of writing and literary analysis, which led to a career in the art of storytelling through journalism, film, and fiction. Her award-winning feature documentary, From The Kill Pen, exposes the underground horse slaughter pipeline in the United States. Her 2013 documentary, Vendemmia, explores the Cinque Terre region of Italy and its struggle for sustainable tourism. Sharon’s experience as a writer includes multiple screenplays, one of which, The Single Chick’s Guide to Italy, has now been adapted into a novel. She has written articles and web content for non-profits such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation, for entertainment industry leaders, and for international clients in the tourism industry. In founding Sila Productions, Sharon chose a name which reminds us that in making our daily living, we have an obligation to seek the highest level of integrity and only embrace practices which elevate and honor the human experience, and avoid any which exploit or otherwise inflict harm. Sila Productions promises to its clients the highest level of integrity, timeliness, and professionalism.

Lighthorse Productions was created by Krista Lee Weller to facilitate the production of inspiring, socially conscious projects that matter. She began her career in television in the newsroom; writing and field producing news broadcasts gave her a solid production foundation and a journalistic, storytelling style, which has served her well in the world of documentary filmmaking. Her experience in film and television include work as a producer, writer, videographer and locations manager on both local and national television commercials, campaigns, feature films and shows. She is currently in production on the documentary film I CARRY YOUR HEART IN MY HEART: Transforming Art Students and Patients Through Visual Art in Medicine, and her feature length documentary VENDEMMIA, a film that explores the Cinque Terre of Italy’s dedication to sustainable tourism, environmental conservation and historical preservation, was released in 2013.

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