According to the Rapporto Giovani 2022 by Istituto Toniolo, over 60% of young people living in inland areas feel there’s a lack of spaces and opportunities to express themselves and take part in community life. On top of this, it comes a digital gap: data collected by Intesa Sanpaolo in 2025 show that in Italy only 42% of people aged 16 to 74 have basic digital skills (compared to the European average of 56%), while just 22% have advanced skills (the European average is 33%).
StoryMakers was created with the aim of bridging this double gap, offering students from the Val di Fiastra — a territory at the foot of the Sibillini Mountains, in the Fiastra River Valley — learning paths in podcasting and videomaking. These activities provide practical skills, encourage an emotional exploration of the territory, and open up spaces for new bottom-up collective narratives.
Workshops at school
During the 2025/2026 school year, students from the Gentili-Tortoreto Institute in San Ginesio, in the province of Macerata, took part in three workshop cycles aimed at observing and narrating the Val di Fiastra territory through their own perspectives.
Emotional Mapping Workshops: students explored the territory guided by sensations and emerging stories, engaging in walkscapes and creating an emotional map capable of conveying a collective and original portrait of the area.
Podcasting Workshops: from collecting field testimonies to writing and recording, one group worked on the production of a podcast dedicated to the places and voices of the community, together with Andrea Genzone, podcaster and educator.
Video Storytelling Workshops: a second group followed a path focused on audiovisual language with videomaker David Giacomelli, carrying out fieldwork to gather materials and interviews, and ultimately producing an original video through filming, editing, and visual storytelling.
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The podcast "L'eco dei nostri luoghi"
The short documentaries
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The events
The map
Credits
StoryMakers – Audiovisual stories of communities is a project curated by Sineglossa, in collaboration with Borgofuturo, Loro Piceno Municipality and the Gentili-Tortoreto Institute of Ripe San Ginesio (MC), funded by the Marche Region – Youth Policies and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers – Department for Youth Policies and the Universal Civil Service through FNPG 2023.
