Who we are

SMK Factory

SMK Factory is an independent production company founded in Bologna in 2009 by a group of media activists. It mainly produces social documentaries, investigations and works focused on civil rights.

Since its foundation, SMK has promoted audience-supported models of production and distribution through crowdfunding and impact campaigns. Its films have been selected by festivals including Nastri d’Argento, David di Donatello, Al Jazeera Documentary Film Festival, IDFA Doc for Sale, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, FINCA and FICDH.

In 2013 SMK founded OpenDDB — Distribuzioni dal Basso, an on-demand platform for independent films, documentaries, books, music and investigations. Since 2018, the company has also distributed its films through theatrical and non-theatrical networks.

Luigi D’Alife

Born in Crotone in 1986, Luigi D’Alife is a documentary filmmaker and director. Since 2009 he has produced reports and short films on social issues, with a particular focus on the Kurdish question and on borders.

He travelled through south-eastern Turkey, Iraq and Syria. In 2015 he entered Cizre shortly after the end of the curfew, an experience that became the short documentary “The Cizre Massacre”. In 2017 he released his first feature film, “Binxet — Under the Border”, narrated by Elio Germano.

In 2018 he returned to the border between Italy and France to document migrants crossing the Alpine passes. He joined SMK Factory at the end of that year and directed his second feature film, “The Milky Way”.

Emanuele Giacopetti

Born in Genoa in 1982, Emanuele Giacopetti is a cartoonist and illustrator. He has worked with Graphic News and with Swiss public broadcaster RSI.

In 2018 he published “Il regno animale”, a graphic novel about humanity forced to migrate. In 2019 he began drawing thousands of frames by hand for the animated sequences of “The Milky Way”, which reconstruct Italian emigration in the 1950s.