Sono Lino
If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you’ve seen the work of Lino Tagliapietra, one of the world’s greatest glass blowers. Now facing the end of his career, learn the history of this Italian master, his luminous protégés, his time working in Seattle, and how his legacy will live on.
Director/Producer Jacob Patrick, Executive Producer Jacopo Vecchiato, and Editor Lano Medina scheduled to attend.
Contrary to popular belief and Seattle-centricism, the greatest glassblower of all time isn’t Dale Chihuly, but Lino Tagliapietra. That praise is heaped on the Italian maestro of glassblowing by eyepatch-clad Chihuly himself. But at the beginning of this documentary, Tagliapietra won’t say he’s a glassblower, a glass artist, or anything. At 87 years-old, Tagliapietra is retiring—or, at least, considering it. He no longer spends his life in the shop, so he is no longer an artist. Who is he if he is not creating, since he’s spent almost every moment since he was 11 years-old blowing glass? Sono Lino traces not only Tagliapietra’s life, but his legacy. Through quick cuts and evocative sound (the hiss of fire in the furnace, the crackle of glass shaped between tongs, Lino’s team around him moving as one) gathered live in the glassblowing shop, Lino dictates the frenzied focus of the art and Tagliapietra’s constant need to create, create, create. The film vacillates between high-pressure creation and soft, placid musings on Tagliapietra as a person, the relationships he’s built, the food he’s made, the world he has changed. Lino creates a portrait of the artist as a man who has left an impression on the blown-glass world and the people within it. Yet, after a life of blowing glass, the film poses the question: Is there any life for Tagliapietra where he isn’t making art?
—Nathalie Graham
- Director: Jacob Patrick
- Principal Cast: Lino Tagliapietra
- Country: USA, Italy, France
- Year: 2023
- Running Time: 76 min.
- Producer: Jacob Patrick
- Cinematographers: Jacob Patrick
- Editors: Lano Medina
- Music: Audiomachine
- Filmography: Debut Feature Film
- Language: English, Italian
- Has Subtitles: Yes