Willy Monteiro Duarte was 21 years old, originally from Cape Verde, an island off the coast of Africa, and had just left the restaurant where he worked as a cook when he defended a friend who was being attacked by bullies. Exactly four years ago, on September 6, 2020, he was killed in Colleferro (Rome) as a victim of a racist beatingThe brutality of the attack had a strong impact on Italian public opinion, so much so that the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella awarded him the Gold Medal for Civil Valor in memory.
An episode that has now become a 3D animated short film titled Willy – Different is goodpresented among the “out of competition” happenings of the Venice Film Festival. Students from Side Academy, journalists and world-class professionals in the film and videogame fields were present. The artistic director of the Veronese academy, Stefano Siganakis, is proud. «We want to work on the themes of inclusion and tolerance», he explains. «This is why our goal now is to present the Willy cartoon to the widest possible audience. We will upload it to websites, we will take it to schools, we will invite institutions to spread it. We hope that this way the message can be conveyed that difference is a value.».
Willy’s sister, Milena Monteirohas embraced the initiative. “The Side Academy cartoon conveys a profound message to kids in a simple and effective way, the same message that our family has been repeating for four years,” he said in a video message. “We all watch cartoons since we were little and it is easier to teach good behavior to children with this language. We must teach the strength of friendship, the value of being different, the desire to reach the best version of ourselves, the part of us that does good to others.: in the cartoon, a hug can make even the toughest bully feel like a child again.”
Also present at the screening of the short was the vice-president Cristina Virili of the National Association In the Name of Respectan association that has obtained the institution of the national day of respect dedicated to Willy Monteiro, which will be held every year on January 20th and which will contribute to the diffusion of the short film in schools of all levels and in prisons that participate in the annual project organized by the Association for the promotion and understanding of the principle of respect among the younger generations.
Willy vs. Bullies
In the development of the video, Willy’s story comes to life through the adventures of a little alien, threatened by bullies, who not only want to humiliate him, but also film the beating and then spread it on social media.. From this idea comes a contrast between the “bad guys” destined to give the audience the emotion of a surprising ending. The result is thanks to the kids and professionals who revolve around the world of Side Academy, which has been ranked among the top five best universities, colleges and private academies in the world of 3D animation, a competition in which entities from over 100 nations participate and managed by the platform The Rookies.
The five and a half minute 3D short was created with pioneering technologies in Italy. It took one hundred thousand hours of workdistributed for academic needs over a three-year period, which involved about seventy students. Around eight thousand frames were produced by the animators of Side Academy, led by their teacher Arduini. For the production, the “Unreal Engine” software by Epic Games was used in an innovative way. This software has been the reference “game engine”, for several years, for the world of video games and has allowed the development of titles such as Fortnite, Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars Jedi and The Fallen Order.
The municipal administration of Colleferro also supported the project, with Mayor Pierluigi Sanna at the premiere. “We are grateful for the work of Side Academy,” he said. “The response of the young generation to the tragedy was one of tolerance, values, solidarity, art, recognition and creativity aimed not at hatred and oppression but at the noble values that Willy was able to distil with his sacrifice.”
Also in the room were Side Academy teacher Sarah Arduini (Oscar for special effects in the Disney film “The Jungle Book”) and Jan Luc Sala, artistic director of the multinational tech giant Ubisoft, who reiterated the technical quality of the Side Academy guys in creating the short film: the technologies used are the same ones used by video game programmers.
