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CHEMISTRY: BEYOND THE COMMONPLACE

1. Author: Giovanni Carrada
2. Director: Marco Scordo
3. Scientific Advisor: Giovanni Carrada
4. Editor: Fabrizia Vitaletti
5. Photography: Maurizio Romanelli
6. Music: Vittorio Cosma © Sugar S.r.l.
7. Producer: Ranuccio Sodi
8. Production: SHOW BIZ srl/distr. Federchimica
9. Italy
10. 11 min.
11. 2008

Why is the word ‘chemistry’ so scary to many of us? Why do we instinctively think of something toxic, polluting or dangerous? Why don’t we just think about a science that studies how everything is made and transformed and provides us knowledge and technology? Chemistry has a strange history: at first acclaimed, then hated. It was acclaimed when it started creating products for medicine, electronics, cars, cosmetics, hygiene and body care, food for everybody, and for almost everything we find in our homes. It started to be hated when we discovered that some substances can be dangerous for us or for the environment, if they are not treated with due care and attention.
Since then, chemistry has almost been ignored: we have simply got used to the scientific and technological miracles that it provides. What is left? Common knowledge. This is unfortunately the inheritance of problems that have been understood and overcome a long time ago, thanks to progress in research, laws and a new environmental protection code, and obviously thanks to the efforts of the chemical industry. The movie is a small journey through time - the history of almost three generations of Italians - to see what has happened.
And above all to understand what chemistry is today, to go beyond this common knowledge.