Elisabetta Sgarbi, a well-known Italian film director and publisher, has carried out a fundamental dissemination operation. In this moment of collective fear and uncertainty, he has put a full stop. With the docufilm Vaccines. 9 science lessons has in fact decided to deal with a delicate theme, with an innovative cut. In addressing a key topic of the pandemic, he wanted to speak to science and not indifference and he preferred the facts that have been exhaustively expressed by the leading experts in the sector (discover them by browsing the gallery). Sgarbi’s is a clear message: science must have its authority. The film, produced by Betty Wrong e Meyer Foundation, after being premiered at 37th Torino Film Festival, saw its debut on April 7 on the platform Nexus +.
Elisabetta Sgarbi told us about her project, in an exclusive interview.
Why did you decide to go into a documentary about vaccines?
«It was a proposal by GianPaolo Donzelli, Pediatrician, President of the Meyer Foundation linked to the Meyer Pediatric Hospital in Florence. It was a time when the no VAX controversy was very heated and measles vaccinations had reached dangerously low levels around the world. IS, since in addition to my directing and publishing activity, I am a pharmacist and owner of a pharmacy, he decided to propose this film to me. I replied that I would only do it by avoiding any form of talk show debate. I would have adopted the point of view of science, made men of science talk about explaining how vaccines work scientifically ».
Returning centrality to science: an authoritative woman like her who supports it is fundamental. What do you think are the precursors of antiscience in our culture? And why are there still those who deny this branch of our existence?
«Since the vaccines are born, there are the no VAXs. Science – as Plato teaches in the myth of the cave – is always accompanied by the arrogance of ignorance, as well as by the legitimate doubts that make it grow. When Edward Jenner experiments – out of any ethical norm, at least from our point of view – cowpox on a farmer’s son, and sees that it works, thousands of illustrations of men transformed into cows proliferate. My film also raises this theme, which I believe to be truly crucial: how to maintain the authority of scientific discourse in a world where everyone can have the right to speak, even to tell the truth?
“If it is really science it is not dogmatic”Is argued in the documentary. These are precisely the foundations of Popper’s Fallibilism. What do you think Karl Popper would say seeing your documentary?
«What he would say I don’t know. But certainly contemporary science, at least in its advanced forms, has its probabilistic character well in mind. Science is not only fallible, but it sets the criteria by itself to help its own fallibility. We we often forget that science is a scientific community which, by now, is very large, which dialogues and communicates without borders. A scientific theory or a vaccine is evaluated by many subjects. IS Covid has proved the cohesion and fire capacity of the world scientific community: having more effective and safe vaccines in less than a year is a sign of great hope “.
Giving so much centrality to science could make some people unhappy. What could be the detractors?
«In the Italian Renaissance they had great artists who were also great men of science. The separation is much later. In my film I also tried to indicate this intertwining between humanistic and scientific culture. Which, moreover, belongs to my biography: I am a pharmacist and I deal with books ».
We should all go to science classes. What do you think could be the most important message you are and are transmitting?
“Covid has generated a certain bewilderment, even in me. Too many scientists, who have often spoken in a confrontational and hasty way. TO I have sometimes seen scientists dazzled by the camera and television. But in general science gives us a sense of rigor, and also of the precariousness of our positions ».
Will it give us the opportunity to take other science lessons on different topics? It could be a very successful strand.
“A film is also often born from life, from the opportunities that arise. Let’s see. I do not exclude it ».
Could Elisabetta Sgarbi start a revolutionary cultural, scientific and social project? It seems that the conditions and ideas are not lacking.
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