00:25This is Tim Wadsworth from Best Trek Uncertain TV.
00:28I'm here in New York City for the Tribeca Film Festival.
00:31Was the psychology completely different in terms of how you have to look at the people
00:36and how they have to look at their country?
00:39Like, look, we all come from somewhere.
00:42Some people are fortunate to come from, you know, in the case of our film, one of the most
00:47beautiful places in the world.
00:49And I think, you know, for the local people in Cinque Terre, the struggle for them is
00:54that there's a dilemma, right?
00:55Like, tourism is the economy.
00:57If you take away tourism, there is no economy.
01:00But it's a double-edged sword where it brings a lot of wealth, but it also brings challenges.
01:04And some of those challenges we explore in our film.
01:07Tourism is a multifaceted industry.
01:10And I think it would be disproportionately unfair to blame, like, to blame only influencers
01:17for over-tourism.
01:18I don't think you can do that.
01:19I think we're all tourists, ultimately, in the world, and I think that we all have responsibility
01:24when we're tourists and how we are as a tourist when we visit a place, you know.
01:28But I do think that social media has been a huge, maybe the most important factor in why
01:37we're having more and more tourism in the world.
01:39But ultimately, you know, the girl, like, we had our premiere here last night, and one of them said
01:46something really interesting, which was, you know, social media, the fact that you're able to just
01:52share photos so easily online, even if you don't have a big following, you're sharing photos,
01:57you're sharing videos, it's these places around the world, these beautiful places that we all want
02:02to visit, they're becoming marketed every day, thousands of times, millions of times, these places
02:07are just being marketed all the time.
02:09You know, back in the day, it was like the Lonely Planet guidebook, or even before that,
02:14it was like a regional guide and, you know, a map or a piece of paper.
02:18Cinque Terre's story is very interesting because it connects with New York, actually.
02:23The original boom in tourism began from an article in the New York Times.
02:28Rick Steves, the famous travel writer, he visited Cinque Terre in the 90s, he did this article,
02:34and it just boomed, it spread like wildfire, you know, like people were so curious, what was
02:40this romantic fishing, these little fishing villages, you know, it really captured people's
02:46imaginations. And then so tourism began, you know, in a kind of a big way in the 90s, and
02:52has only grown since. But also, the Italy has marketed this, the Italians have been marketing their own,
03:00you know, how they've marketed Cinque Terre, like, quite strong, you know, for a couple of decades
03:06there, they've put a lot of money and investment into marketing this place. And now you're seeing
03:12the results of a lot of those things.
03:19Good morning Cinque Terre, good morning. It's another beautiful day in paradise.
03:27If you're going to work, slowly, slowly. Let's start the summer as it should be.
03:36Because nothing lasts forever.
03:40What drew you? I mean, because, because there, you know, there, there is so many layers,
03:46but it is, you know, because it could be, it could be different things. What drew you?
03:51And what drew me was, I had a, I was dating someone at the time who was several years ago.
03:58She was from the region. And she was from like, you know, right beside Cinque Terre.
04:04And she shared an article with me one day, Time Out magazine, it was like, top 10 most beautiful
04:08towns in the world. And number one, at the top, Cinque Terre. And I didn't really know much about
04:14this place. And so, you know, quick Google search, and you're like, oh, my God, I recognize this
04:19colorful houses on the cliffs, you know, like, we've all seen, it's almost like, I think at one
04:23point, it was like a window screensaver on phones, you know. And I just thought, you know,
04:28a place is remarkably beautiful, but I immediately thought, it must be, it must have so many tourists,
04:35this place. And so I did a little bit of research, and I was like, wow, it's three and a
04:38half thousand
04:39people live there, but they get almost more than 4 million, almost, they get almost 4 million tourists
04:45every year. And I, you know, as a filmmaker, as someone who's looking for a story, or I just thought,
04:51wow, this is a remarkable situation, that must be so difficult, that must bring so much wealth into the
04:57area, which they need, you know. But it also must, there must be like, contradictions within that
05:02situation too. So, it was through a partner, it was through an ex-girlfriend, she brought me right
05:08into that culture, through connections that she had there. And I never actually came there as a
05:13tourist, I came there from day one as a filmmaker, researching. So, you know, I spent on and off,
05:19you know, I was going there maybe four or five times over the course of two years, staying there for
05:24long periods. But meeting all these people. Yeah, meeting all the locals, you know, having a glass
05:29of wine with the local politician down in his little cellar, going out picking grapes with the
05:35wine grower, getting out on a fish and boats. So that's how you found the winemaker? Yeah, yeah,
05:39I just made it, I made it my duty to try and use as many people as I possibly could
05:44to try and look at,
05:45like, right, who would have some quite specific and different stories and different perspectives to
05:50show within this situation. So, I mean, it was an immense privilege and pleasure to do that research
05:57because, you know, everybody wants to go to Italy, let alone live and experience life like a local person.
06:24I'm going to eat some gelato after this.
06:45Go ahead, sorry.
06:48Yes, because the thing is, many people think that way about Ireland, you know, because I love
06:52Canamara. I'm from Canamara. You are, like, so Clifton. I'm from Clifton. I'm from Clifton.
06:56I grew up in Clifton. So, like, my friend's, like, owns Abbey Glen.
07:00No way.
07:01Yeah, do you know who I am?
07:01That's a wild coincidence.
07:03Yeah, my house was right beside the Abbey Glen.
07:06Really?
07:06No joke.
07:07That's the allure of tourism, being able to sit down and talk to people.
07:11Yes.
07:11Is what I'm talking about, you know, and that's what's interesting, bringing the influencer
07:15and bringing her in, because in that way you give an interesting behind the scenes look of
07:21how that actually works.
07:22Yeah, for sure. I think there's often, like, performance involved from locals involved in
07:28a tourism economy.
07:29Yeah.
07:30You know, like, one of the kind of themes I was looking at when making this film was, like,
07:34what happens when paradise becomes a product, you know what I mean?
07:37But at the same time, I think we were trying to find examples in our story, in our film,
07:43of people who really were trying to offer a cultural exchange, like something with death,
07:48something with substance, when it came to what they were offering tourists.
07:53And Bartolo is someone I felt, and I was just really moved and kind of inspired by him.
07:58I thought he was such a cool and great person.
08:02And he is someone who genuinely wants tourists to have this rich experience.
08:07Like, you're saying that you like, you know, to travel to the west of Ireland where I'm from.
08:11And, you know, it's that thing.
08:14You go to a local place. You want to come away. When we travel somewhere, the best holidays we
08:19have is when we had an interaction, when we had a conversation with a local person, when we had
08:24something that felt specific, something that felt like I got a taste of, you know, what the local
08:31people are like or whatever, you know? And that can just be a conversation. You know, that can just
08:35be a chat. That can be the restaurant owner. It can be, you know, the person who's working on the
08:41ferry boat doesn't really matter. I think what it is, is a human interaction, human experience.
09:11,
09:11,
09:11,
09:11,
09:12,
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