By Fabio Colagrande
The life of Giacomo Mattivi can be described as a seemingly quiet one, like the landscape of the Dolomites, yet one driven by a deep and unstoppable energy. He is the protagonist of Green Lava, the documentary short set to screen at the Lumiere Music Hall in Beverly Hills from Sep 18 to 24 in the Los Angeles area. This will allow the film to take a necessary step in the qualification process for the Best Documentary Short Film category at the Academy Awards.
Directed by Lia Beltrami and Ali Aksu, Green Lava is produced by Emotions to Generate Change and made in collaboration with Vatican News, Vatican Radio, and Vatican Media: all part of the Dicastery for Communication. The documentary, in Italian with English subtitles, premiered in Rome on Jan 25, 2025, during the Jubilee of the World of Communications.
Giacomo’s creative strength
At the heart of the story is Giacomo, 22, originally from Baselga di Piné, in the province of Trento. Living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, he uses a wheelchair and a ventilator. However, he does not let the disease define who he is. He studies sociology, works as a catechist, writes poetry, and has a great passion for cinema, music, and nature.
Between university classes, football matches with friends, a small egg-selling business, and time spent with his family, Giacomo continues to plan for the future while cherishing the memory of his brother Mattia, who died in Jan 2022 from the same condition. Rather than closing themselves off in grief, the Mattivi family chose to open themselves to others. Through the social promotion association Shemà and the Casa Iride project, Giacomo’s parents, Stefano and Lara, work with young people in Baselga di Piné, promoting welcome, inclusion, and education for peace.
Giacomo’s story had already been told in 2024 by a podcast team at Vatican Radio – Vatican News in the five-part series Il talento di Giacomo. Il viaggio di un giovane poeta dalla disabilità all’ispirazione (Giacomo’s Talent: The Journey of a Young Poet from Disability to Inspiration). Through poetry, music, and faith, the young man explained how difficulties and the loss of his brother Mattia had become sources of creativity, listening, and openness to others. The story foreshadowed the themes that Green Lava now brings to the screen.
A message capable of reaching far and wide
“I am truly happy and excited about this moment,” Giacomo says in a statement to Vatican Media, because Green Lava “has reached a wider audience and will reach so many people.” At a time marked by “great uncertainty and global tensions,” the film can, in the young man’s view, be “a key to seeing the best that exists within each of us.”
The prospect of entering the Oscar race, he emphasizes, is not so much a source of personal pride as an opportunity “for the message to reach as many people as possible.” Giacomo then recalls the support the Dicastery for Communication has given and recognizes an echo of Pope Francis’ appeal for fraternity, community, and care for creation in the film. “I am especially happy about this, because Pope Francis’ legacy must not be lost; on the contrary, it must be carried forward,” he says.
Having an illness is still a difficult trial, but it can also provide a different way of looking at reality. “If you look at illness from another perspective, you understand many things about the way the world works, about suffering, and even about its meaning, which is sometimes not easy to understand,” Giacomo shares. And yet, he observes, people have a remarkable ability to keep moving forward, much like nature, which continually reclaims its space.
A story of faith and community
Lia Beltrami, the film’s director, also shared with Vatican Media what this moment means: “Telling Giacomo’s story was a great challenge. His strength, his joy in living, and the depth of his being touch every cell in your body.” For her, the lives of Giacomo, his brother Mattia, and the community of the Piné Plateau are “an example of authenticity and solidarity, of a living Gospel.” Bringing the film to Hollywood therefore represents “a great opportunity to show how meaningful and powerful a life lived in faith can be.”
Ali Aksu also shares the significance of sharing this journey. A film producer, entrepreneur, founder of Untold — a platform dedicated to socially impactful content — and co-director of Green Lava, he told Vatican Media: “I am deeply grateful to be part of Giacomo’s journey. As a producer committed to social impact, I feel that my vocation is to bring untold stories to light and inspire the world through purpose-driven storytelling.”
An antidote to our clouded eyes
Dr Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, recalls the presentation of Green Lava at the Jubilee of Communications and a remark Giacomo made at the time: “Only those who wear glasses understand how difficult it is to see when the lenses fog up.”
“Green Lava,” Ruffini told Vatican media, “is an antidote to our clouded eyes, even when we are not wearing glasses.” It is a film that is “alive, moving,” and has become “a journey into the disruptive beauty of life and friendship.”
The Prefect concludes by expressing his emotion at seeing “this little film making its way through the world, all the way to knocking on the door of the Oscars, like an irreverent young man who ‘reveals’ to us the secret of beauty.” Even before the pursuit of an award, Green Lava’s journey brings Giacomo’s desire to the screen: to share a way of looking at vulnerability that can generate hope and help others refuse to give up. – Vatican News
