{"id":905038,"date":"2026-09-25T13:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/905038\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T13:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:52:10","slug":"paolo-natales-ecam-incubator-project-our-raised-skin-in-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/905038\/","title":{"rendered":"Paolo Natale’s ECAM Incubator Project ‘Our Raised Skin’ in Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDirector Paolo Natale\u2019s experimental hybrid documentary\/video-essay, \u201cOur Raised Skin\u201d (\u201cNuestra Piel Levantada\u201d), is currently in advanced development as part of Madrid Film School\u2019s (ECAM<\/a>) incubator program. It\u2019s one of the five projects selected for La Incubadora\u2019s ninth edition.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe film reflects on and questions self-perception, asking at what point in childhood we go from being children to patriarchal men,\u201d says Natale.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven though Natale says the film is not autobiographical, he draws from the fact that he, his father and his grandfather all suffered from the same compulsive eating disorder.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur Raised Skin\u201d is produced by Manuela Guti\u00e9rrez Arrieta, Juan Carlos Ballesteros, Nabil Ejey and Mubox Studio. Guti\u00e9rrez Arrieta and Natale studied together at ECAM and they have received development funding from the Region of Murcia and La 7, Murcia\u2019s regional television channel. They are seeking other sources of funding in Spain and Italy, where Natale is from. They are planning to shoot at least parts of the film in the summer of 2027.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDirector Paolo Natale and Producer Manuela Guti\u00e9rrez Arrieta, \u2018Our Raised Skin\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\t
Variety interviewed Natale about the film.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou say the film is about male bodies and the fear of its touch. Can you elaborate?<\/p>\n

\n\tPaolo Natale: This film is written from a very specific and precise observation of the dynamics that drive relationships of power and violence against bodies within the family, but drawing on reality is just one further layer, and I believe the project straddles the line between situational portrayal and theatrical staging. I\u2019ve always been aware, ever since my childhood, that I had a problem with food. Or rather, an emotional problem that was managed through food and, consequently, a sense of the violence directed at obese bodies and all that this entails in various spheres. I didn\u2019t know how to put this into words until I was 23. I gradually realized that there was a pattern, passed down through the male figures in my family via their upbringing. A way of managing emotions that involved food. I\u2019ve internalized this, just as my father did.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s very common for men with eating disorders to feel shame and guilt. This is something that often leads to delayed diagnoses. We tend to associate bigorexia with men. All men are taught that they must achieve a certain physique in order to exert power over others \u2014 a strong body with which to capitalize on everything. However, emotional hunger or binge-eating disorders are different. Softness and flaccidity are frowned upon, and there is still a great deal of silence surrounding these issues among men.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you decide not to do a regular narrative feature film?<\/p>\n

\n\tNatale: I feel more at home with a documentary-style approach, so to speak. I\u2019m also interested, from a cinematic perspective, in films that manage to navigate different layers and textures, whether on a formal, aesthetic or narrative level. I like films that are unsettling in that sense, and that\u2019s what I want to make. I almost always value the risk and the intentions more than the result itself. I like and am moved by films that are mistakenly regarded as cinematic exercises, as imperfect films from an industrial point of view. The \u2018small, fragile films\u2019 are far removed even from standardized forms of funding, although sadly most of us find ourselves swept in the same direction.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou mentioned that as a child you heard orange fat overflowing and and flooding everything. What do you think it meant?<\/p>\n

\n\tNatale: Fat is something that is present in our bodies from the moment we are born until we die. Our fat is political. It is a viscous substance with which we must come to terms. It is also guilt and pain, but above all, for me, it represents life itself. All bodies store fat, no matter how much of a calorie deficit you create. Fat has been present throughout human history.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat do you mean when you say you want to make the aesthetic political, while reflecting on the ethics of aesthetics and representation?<\/p>\n

\n\tNatale: I am someone who is quite concerned about the issue of representation, cinematic formats and their use. I am a little tired of canonically beautiful, sharply defined images, of that sense of neatness. What does an image need to have to be considered cinematic? What must it possess to attain that status? What hierarchy lies behind these images? What constitutes an \u2018elevated\u2019 image? <\/p>\n

\n\tI believe we find ourselves immersed in a contemporary context overflowing with canonically beautiful images, featuring naturalistic lighting and well-defined faces and bodies. Neat digital images and unjustified uses of film that reflect a social and class-based hierarchy of images. While high-resolution images seem to possess a certain power, low-resolution images bear witness to a technological failure and amateur production.<\/p>\n

\n\tI wish to champion imperfection, placing at the center those images that show signs of fading, blurred and out of focus. I wish to approach male bodies from a place of acceptance of \u2018flaw,\u2019 thereby eschewing the norms and fetishism of visual capitalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Director Paolo Natale\u2019s experimental hybrid documentary\/video-essay, \u201cOur Raised Skin\u201d (\u201cNuestra Piel Levantada\u201d), is currently in advanced development as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,473138,473139,134,344],"class_list":["post-905038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ecam","tag-ecam-incubator","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}