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[0:14] Robert Bannon: Well, you know, we're huge fans of the Bocelli family. Matteo Bocelli's been here. We have loved the music of Andrea Bocelli, and I saw a press release that a brand new film, Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe, was coming to theaters and going to be all around the country. And I needed to know more. He is amazing. I mean, he's riding horses and playing piano and doing everything you think he probably could never do. He changed the face of music, and we have the incredible director here to tell us all about it. With incredible, she's pretty incredible herself. I believe she can do any movie. She's done a whole bunch of movies out here, and we're really excited to welcome her to the round table. Cosima Spender, welcome to the show.

[1:08] Cosima Spender: Thank you for having me.

[1:10] Robert Bannon: So when did you—you're out in London right now? It's late at night, almost.

[1:15] Cosima Spender: No, not that late. It's like 7 p.m.

[1:18] Robert Bannon: Okay. And you're here chatting with us. Thank you for spending time with us.

[1:22] Cosima Spender: It's a pleasure.

[1:23] Robert Bannon: So when did you decide that being a filmmaker and a director, when'd you get the bug to do this?

[1:29] Cosima Spender: Well, it really happened about 25 years ago. I was traveling a lot after university, after college, and I was taking a lot of videos and photographs, and then I decided to go to film school and study how to make documentaries. And so I did that for three years. I kind of came through it from ethnography, which is a very kind of traditional old-fashioned way of approaching documentary, but I changed at the National Film School. I kind of changed my style, and now I'm open to many different things. But I seem to be doing a lot of Italian subjects because I was born and grew up in Italy, and there's not that many documentary makers out there in Italy, but there's a lot of stories, so I am very lucky and fortunate to be able to depict so many Italian great stories.

[2:27] Robert Bannon: Where in Italy did you grow up?

[2:29] Cosima Spender: Well, funnily enough, I grew up about an hour and a half away from where Andrea Bocelli grew up. So when they knocked on my door saying, "Are you open to doing this documentary?" I said, "Well, sure, why not?" Because, you know, I knew he was very attached to the land he came from, and I am also very attached to this land because Tuscany, you know, it kind of really gets under your skin, and you really—there's a strong sense of Tuscan identity when you grow up in such a beautiful place, really. It's really about the smell of the earth and the nature and the way people are, the sense of humor. So we really kind of connected on many different levels, and he's a really busy man. But the fact that I had grown up in this rural area near him, and I was called Cosima, like one of his oldest friends is Paolo Cosimo, so I think he was relaxed, and it kind of made me perfectly placed to capture the atmosphere in his household and to capture the atmosphere that he has and to help tell his own story because really I was an enabler here.

He wanted to tell his own story in his own words, and of course, I worked for like more than a year on it, but I was kind of being a vehicle for him to tell his story in a way that he wanted to tell it. I mean, he didn't interfere at all in how I made it, but he kind of trusted me. Once he decided to trust me, then it was, you know, he just kind of let me into his house and with a crew. And yeah, it was amazing.

[4:09] Robert Bannon: Well, the film is going to be out in theaters September 21st. Amazing that a lot of documentaries go straight to streaming, they do the film fest. You got a theatrical release just like that. It'll be around the country, around the world, starting on September 21st. So if you love his music, if you love opera, if you love documentaries, if you love inspirational stories, Italian culture, whatever you love, this is a film for everybody. For me, my family, even though my last name is Bannon, my mom is Rose de Meglio. We're from Ischia, we're from Southern Italy. And growing up, when I think of Andrea Bocelli, I remember taking my grandmother to see him at Madison Square Garden. I remember going to Central Park and sitting in the rain and seeing his concerts.

If you grow up in certain homes with certain types of culture and art, especially in Italian, there's a lot of pride in what he has done to opera and this style of music. How do you tell that story and give it a beginning, middle, and end? That's what amazes me about a documentary. How do you frame this story?

[5:06] Cosima Spender: Well, with him, it was such a kind of epic story. This countryside, this boy from the middle of nowhere, this countryside boy that suddenly, you know, becomes successful quite late in life because he was in his 30s when he really got his break. But he had never stopped believing in himself, and he had always held on to this dream, which was to make a living through music, which was his passion. I mean, he's a really clever, intelligent person, so he'd got a law degree and kind of done all the proper things, but really opera was his passion since he was born because he loved opera from the days he was in hospital as a little boy when he had his trouble with his eyes. The guy next door was playing opera, and that distracted the baby.

So he all, you know, opera was his passion and his soul. And when he became a teenager, he decided he really wanted to integrate with more boys his own age, and he was lucky that, you know, a couple of the boys in his class really took him under their wings and taught him how to dress like a teenager. So he, you know, kind of away from his grandmother's, because his grandmother used to be this very traditional woman from a different century, used to kind of put brilliantine in his hair and dress him with suits. But when the teenagers got hold of him and said, "Right, we're going to make him our mission, he's going to become a proper teenager," and then they had to lure him away from opera, and he kind of became familiar with pop music.

Really, it was a way for him to fit in to his cohort. And he became a very versatile artist because he is a great pop singer, but also an amazing opera tenor. And he is able to bring a larger audience to opera thanks to the pop. Yeah, so the beginning, middle, and end, it was quite—the narrative arc is simple because it really was a biographical story of how it all happened. Because sometimes you have to make films, you know, more interesting, or you have to be clever with the structure and build up a kind of mystery, or you know, but in this case, it is a straight biographical narrative, but because his story is so extraordinary, I mean, it's all there, you know, and the music is extraordinary, and he's pretty amazing because, you know, can you imagine he can't see and he goes horse riding alone in the woods?

I mean, it's just, you know, he goes skiing. Oh, and in the summer I was saying, "But Andrea, you know, when you go on holiday on your boat, do you actually swim?" And the guy who was with him said, "Does he swim?" He goes, "Windsurfing." I mean, there's no stopping him. He's just got a zest for life, and he wants to make the most of his opportunities and make the most of life, and he has this optimism that's infectious, and I hope everyone that watches the film is going to come out not only having a dream but believing in that dream and focusing on the positives and the optimism, you know, that he carries with him.

[8:33] Cosima Spender: I'm sure when you said I'm gonna be a documentary filmmaker, people must have been like, and how are you gonna pay your bills? How do you make it? Totally, totally. But you made it, and you were tenacious and you had to be creative, and you had to have luck and talent and skill. Luck. Oh my god. So but you also have to harness the luck. And I'll tell you a story when I made this film on the Palio, which is the oldest horse race in the world. And I shouldn't really spoil it. I mean, you can find it on iTunes, it was on Netflix, it's called Palio, P-A-L-L-I-O. It's the oldest horse race in Siena, and there's um 10 districts taking part in this horse race. Yeah, that's it. And honestly, my producers couldn't believe it because I could only choose two or three characters of the jockeys to follow in the lead up to this enormous race.

And if you choose one district, you can't go with the enemy district, so you had to really kind of it was hard, and there's no way everyone's gonna let you in because if you made a deal with that district, there's no way we're gonna let you in. So, and I grew up in this town, so I knew a lot about it, but I wasn't really part of the nitty-gritty. It's basically a game of corruption, and it actually taught me a lot about systems and how they work. It was an eye-opening experience. Um, but I was so lucky. The jockeys I chose that summer to follow, and I only chose two or three out of the ten, they became the protagonists of these races, and one of them wins, and you know, all along our filming period, people were like, ha ha ha ha, you're putting all this energy into making this documentary.

Ha ha ha ha. Everyone who's done it never manages to follow the winner. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Your producers are putting all this money in your film, and you know, they're mad, you're all mad, you're all mad, and I just had this self-belief, and in the end it paid off. That was my lucky moment, and it did kind of change my life. But it was is was it luck, or was it instinct, or was it the zeitgeist? Or it's really bizarre, and you know, we all have different religions or different belief systems, but everyone in the world believes in luck, right? And what what makes luck? Do you create your own luck or I don't know what it is? It's the con it's a longer conversation. I think for you, you're right where you're supposed to be because it led you to this moment and whatever's to come after this, and that's you're in your destiny, you're in your path. This is what you're supposed to do.

[11:21] Cosima Spender: Well, I tell you, Andrea is someone who really believes in destiny, and he has a lot of faith, and he's a religious man, uh, much more religious than I am. But he has this faith in the way the world works, um, which is extraordinary. I am more resistant in certain things that annoy me in the world, you know, I'd like to change certain things, but he's someone who accepts and just goes with what always feels right for him, and tries to um be the kindest person with all the people around him, and he was certainly kind to us, and then the other extraordinary thing I have to tell you about making this documentary, which I had never experienced before, was when you're in a room with a tenor who's practicing his art.

I mean, you actually feel it, but I mean, you feel the voice just projected towards you because you know, you're with the camera very close up, and the crew were all these Roman guys who are usually quite loud and they want their pizza at 11 o'clock and their coffee regularly, but they were just spellbound because the sheer force of the voice when it hits you, it's like and when he hits those high notes, you're like you actually, it's a kind of physical feeling. You're like, you know, you're like, oh my god, you hear you really feel it, and the privilege of being in his living room with him just practicing like that by the piano, you know, or just singing with his daughter, and it's just extraordinary.

And I didn't realize that because when you go and hear a singer, they're always miles away from you, right? I mean, who's on the podium except for the fellow singers? And yet the voice has this force, and he is someone who, because he is uh blind, he actually relies on the bouncing off of sound waves in the environment around him wherever he goes. So, you know, he walks with nothing because you know, he maybe holds the shoulder of someone, but he knows exactly where he is. He knows if there's a wall in front of him, he knows if there's a tree in front of him, he knows if there's plants in front of him. From the the way the echo of his shoes hit the ground and the kind of speed of the echo, the way it bounces back to him, he can tell where what the landscape is like.

So he's got these. Okay, he certain things he doesn't have, he, you know, he's not focusing on what he hasn't got, he is focusing on what he does have, which is an incredible instinct for people and and situations. He kind of he, you know, obviously he can't read the room, but he feels the room, he feels the energy, he feels. I mean, the classic is all his friends who are these rural guys, they're like, he knows when a beautiful woman enters the room. And I'm like, well, how? And they're like, from the way the people react to the entrance of that person, usually a woman in Italy has that effect, you know, they're like, you know, he can tell how from the how people react, how the person is, and then he can sense everything.

So okay, you might think, oh, he is lacking in something like vision, but actually he has so much more that we have lost. Yeah. Because maybe we all had that as children, or we all, you know, but we've lost it because we are so distracted by the visuals. We're so distracted by the surface, and he's just sensing everything, you know, beyond the surface.

[15:06] Robert Bannon: I’m inspired just by our conversation, and I feel like everybody will be inspired by this tale and by this story. And everybody, if you love the music, there's something in this for everyone, and I can't wait to see it. Go get a ticket, go see it in the cinema, go see it in the theater, get your popcorn, be ready for the music, be ready for the story. And it's more than just his vision impairments or his music. It's about his family and his journey, and there's a story there for everybody that you definitely need to. Do you have do you have ideas? You are you tinkering about what's next, or are you already just living in this moment?

[15:43] Cosima Spender: Well, I'm enjoying the moment, and I'm developing some other ideas for series. I've done a few series before for Netflix. I'm working on some other series, but you know, it does take years to get something off the ground. This one was special because literally they called me and on a Saturday they said, come and meet us, the producers on a Wednesday, then oh, let's go meet him. You have to meet him, meet his record company, and all these things. I didn't realize they were obstacles. I was just, you know, myself. And they happened fast. It was meant to be, I suppose.

[16:20] Robert Bannon: It was meant to isn't it? Meant to be. The zeitgeist, your journey. It was meant to be. Everybody, I'm excited. Everybody make sure they check out starting September 21st. Because I Believe. I'm gonna go to the gym. I'm the person at the gym that listens to Andrea Bocelli. That's oh brilliant. Brilliant. It gives me it gives me you don't have to listen to only club dance music. You can put on some opera and live it up. Uh I'm excited to see it. I'm excited to see what's next. And congratulations.

[16:49] Cosima Spender: Thank you.