«The Point» by Andrea Malloni

A true institution that endures as the years go by. Theater of the very serious games, typical of the age of transition between childhood and youth, of first loves and first disappointments, summer camp is a reality that evokes bittersweet memories and nostalgic melancholy in most of us, at any latitude, age, and gender.

Andrea Malloni’s «The Point» is an objective yet very personal collection on the microcosm of summer camp, which has imprinted an indelible mark on the formative history of dozens of generations.

Relatable, the documentary reconstructs the existential dynamics of life in summer camp from the stories told by the very different protagonists who experienced it firsthand. This choral narrative offers food for thought on hierarchies and friendships, on what for many was the first discovery of unspoiled nature, on a glimpse of adult life by children.

Who were you in the summer camp? The work of the filmmaker, who specializes in poetic, reflexive, and narrative documentaries, of which The Point is an example, may give you more than you might expect in reconstructing a fundamental and little-regarded piece of your adolescence.