Manuela's Story
Growing up in a small Sicilian city was rough at times because I never quite looked like everyone else, and they let me know it. Although I was not openly gay at the time — hardly anyone was — my appearance did not neatly fit into the traditional gender binary. Fortunately, I moved to Milan at 17 to study architecture. As a more open-minded and cosmopolitan city, Milan had many gay bars, and a thriving LGBT community that helped me connect with diverse people from all walks of life.
As I devoted more and more of my time to exploring my sexuality and queer feminism, however, my studies took a back seat. I moved to Barcelona for six years and became enmeshed in the queer scene there, finding work as an architect while completing my dissertation for my degree. My student-life balance recovered, and so did my studies. Architecture has always been my passion, and with my rising grades, I managed to secure a scholarship in Berlin. But I always heard the call of party scenes and the activist community.
While at an architecture firm, I tested the waters of becoming a DJ and started hosting parties on queer and feminism-related themes, including one I organized called “Open Zoo” which brought artists, music lovers, LGBT people, and feminists together in a wonderful celebration. My new side gig as a DJ became financially complicated, and I found myself gravitating to one of my other passions, film. I put my organizational skills to work in the service of sapphic film events instead of parties and learned how to seek public funding for cultural events. I began by organizing a film series in collaboration with the feminist archive Bildwechsel. Among them, I co-curated the film event “Camera au Poing!” on the video activism of Carole Roussopoulos, a project awarded by the Senate Funds for Women Artists in Berlin. I finally managed to bring one of these events to Sicily, a film queer feminist series called “Cinema degenere.”
During this time, I also became involved in the making of films. And the more film people I met, the more I came to realize that the independent film community was saturated with camera operators, lighting folks, actors, and directors, but there was always a high demand for sound designers. Given my love of music, my tech savviness, and the contacts I’d created as a film event organizer, it seemed like a perfect fit.
One incident that stands out was when a filmmaker approached me to collaborate. We met over coffee to discuss the project and he offered me the role of editor. I told him I wasn’t an editor, but a sound designer, but he told me it didn’t matter. “Let’s do it!!” he said.
My experience in film has mainly been working sound in art films with skeleton crews comprised of the director, editor, color corrector, and me. I was not formally trained in music but I’ve picked up the needed skills along the way, and enthusiasm for where my journey has taken me helped me to navigate these uncharted waters. I call myself a sound designer more than a sound engineer because along with some technical stuff, it really is creative work. I do everything with sound, from design to effects, to soundtrack, foley, recording, and editing — all by myself. The upside is that my ability to operate as a one-person sound department has made me sought after in the indie film community as a budget-friendly hire.
As a queer person, I found freedom in films as a kid and always dream of being involved in them. My artistic odyssey, through architecture, self-discovery, activism, event organizing, music, and eventually film, helped me build a huge network of artist friends while being connected to the communities I’ve found a home in.
If I’ve learned anything during this process, it’s not to take yourself too seriously, and never to shy away from being experimental or to try new things. There were many friends along the way who gave me the encouragement I needed to follow my passions, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without their help.
For more about Manuela, check out her website.
Artist Notes
“The pianos emanating from the houses indicate Manuela’s transition from an architect to a sound designer. Manuela is featured in between the flowing pianos indicating her talent in music. These also symbolize her music career, spanning for many years as a DJ and a sound designer. The flowers in the meadow indicate her expertise, talent and creativity that she brings to the table where she wears
many hats and does different work related to the sound like designing, editing, and many more things by
herself.”
Published Jul 1, 2024
Published in Issue XII: Cinema