This evocative production incorporates live music with film, as Viola Dana debut their new original score alongside a rare screening of the 1924 film, Dall’Italia all’Australia (From Italy to Australia) on Friday, July 16, as part of Fremantle Festival’s 10 Nights in Port 2021.

For one night only, audiences will witness rare footage from 1924, which shows the 8000-mile odyssey of the Regina d’Italia via Genoa, Messina, Colombo and Mauritius, before ultimately making its voyage to Australia and stopping at ports in Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

The film includes rare footage of panoramic views witnessed by Italian, Yugoslav, Greek, Arabic and Jewish passengers during their seven-week migration, where 79 of those passengers disembarked in Fremantle on September 14, 1924.

Viewers will witness raw scenes, such as passengers boarding and Carrara marble being loaded onto the ship in Genoa, as well as a ceremony to celebrate the crossing of the equator near Colombo.

Viola Dana have been in high demand since their first performance in 2008 at the Revelation Film Festival, composing original scores for screenings of classic films like Buster Keaton’s The General, Sherlock Jr. and The High Sign.

For composer and percussionist, Pete Guazzelli, the group’s latest project saw him reconnect with his roots thanks to not one, but two, incredible discoveries.

While researching and composing the score, Guazzelli discovered his own family connection to the ship featured in the film.

With paternal grandparents from the mountainous Garfagnana area in Tuscany, and maternal grandparents from Messina, in Sicily, Guazzelli said the film started him on his own journey of researching his history.

“I found it to be a really cathartic experience,” he said.

“I was flabbergasted to discover my paternal grandfather came to Perth in the same year and on the same boat that was featured in the film; he came out in February and the camera crew came out in September.

“To watch the film again through the eyes of my grandfather, who I spent so much time with as a child, was very touching.

“Then just a couple of weeks ago, I discovered that my maternal grandparents had also come to Australia on the Regina d’Italia in the 1930s.”

A scene from the film showing passengers boarding the ship in Genoa, Italy. (Photo: Cineteca Milano)

The initial discovery of Guazzelli’s connection to the film prompted him to incorporate vocals for the first time ever, including Italian classics and folk songs, as well as English originals as the ship approaches its final destination.

“Because there are no characters, there was space to include a different voice, literally,” he said.

“Knowing that my grandfather had been on that ship and seen those sights, I felt like it allowed me to create an honest representation.”

Guazzelli said the Fremantle Festival’s 10 Nights in Port was the perfect event to debut the production, given the very site in which Viola Dana will perform is featured in the film.

“Fremantle was the entry point for so many migrants from different countries to Australia,” he said.

“The WA Maritime Museum is located right on the pier, which you see in the film from the ship’s perspective.”

Following the debut, Guazzelli hopes to one day tour the production, when COVID-19 restrictions allow it.

“My hope is that audiences that see the film will gain a new understanding and appreciation for those who undertook this odyssey to arrive in a new country of opportunity and challenges,” he concluded.

“I hope that those who see the film and hear our score will be compelled to research further into their own family’s history and to appreciate what it may have been like for those that came before and I feel the soundtrack performed live with the film provides audiences with a unique way of experiencing the film, giving them an opportunity to see and reinterpret the family story of migration.”