Rotte indipendenti

Rotte Indipendenti is a valuable, enthusiastic and authoritative documentary that manages to cover an extensive period (from the seventies to recent times) in the music scenes present in selected cities. This is its strongpoint because it would have been impossible to find so much information so well organised all in the same place otherwise. But it is also – inevitably and understandably – its weak point since none of the groups or situations mentioned are dealt with sufficiently thoroughly. In the episode on Bologna what emerges is the enormous influence that Punk has had on the city, and some events connected with it. A case in hand is the famous concert of The Clash in Piazza Maggiore, prompted by the town council in an attempt to reconnect with young people. This concert created a split within the Italian Punk movement (Crass vs Clash). However, there was also space for Skiantos, Nabat and Raf Punk. Worthy of special note is the experience of the social centre known as Isola nel Kantiere which gave rise to the Posse movement, but it was also important for hardcore Punk. Dialogue between different scenes exists and is productive, but there are also some divisions: “Within the hip-hop scene there was a question of rivalry which did not exist in the Punk scene. There were people in hip hop bad talking about each other and this continues even today. An irritating and incomprehensible thing.” Overall Bologna appears as the city in which there has been more horizontal alignment among the scenes.