ALBANUS PROJECT: INSIDE THE OLD EMISSARY
A documentary by Massimo D'Alessandro

BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY at 2021 New York Movie Awards
BEST FOREIGN DIRECTOR at 2021 Roshani International Film Festival (India)
SILVER AWARD BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY at 2021 Hollywood Gold Awards.
3rd Giury Award at "7th International Documentary Film Festival of Ierapetra &Awards" 2020.
Third Place Award at "IX Rassegna del documentario e della comunicazione archeologica" in Licodia Eubea (CT) 2019

Official Selection (out of competition) 2022 ARKHAIOS FILM FESTIVAL.
Official Selection FLICKFAIR On demand Film Festival 2022
Official Selection ESPELEOCINE 2021 - Mondonedo (Spain)
Official Selection FESTIVAL DE CINE ARQUEOLÓGICO DEL BIDASOA (FICAB) 2021
Official Selection ARCHEOFILM Florence 2021
Official selection SPELEOKAMARATON 2021
Official selection 4th CYPRUS Archaeological Film Festival 2021
Official Selections Mediterranean Film Festival Cannes 2020

The documentary narrates the exploration and documentation campaign that has been ongoing for more than three years by the speleologists of the HYPOGEA Federation inside the ancient Albano outfall.
The outfall of Lake Albano, in the municipality of Castel Gandolfo, the heart of the Alban Hills, is one of the oldest Roman vestiges of hydraulic engineering. Second only to the Cloaca Massima, it is a structure of extraordinary historical, archaeological and geological value, hitherto scarcely investigated because of enormous exploratory difficulties.
The outfall, almost a kilometer and a half long, allowed the optimal and adjustable outflow of the waters of Lake Albano from the inlet called "incile" to the outlet at Le Mole di Castel Gandolfo.
A route that crosses underground the approximately 300-meter-high hill, the site of the summer residence of the Popes, and after passing some towns and the Appian Way, flows into the locality Le Mole where eighteenth-century basins used as public wash houses are still present.
In 2013, the Speleological Federation HYPOGEA, formed by the three major Roman speleological groups specialized in exploration and documentation of ancient artificial cavities ASSO, Egeria Centro Ricerche Sotterranee and Roma Sotterranea, decided to tackle systematically and with advanced techniques for the first time the complete exploration of the Lake Albano outflow.
It aims to carry out complete topographic mapping, detailed construction analysis and, not a secondary aspect, to acquire sufficient data to evaluate a recovery and enhancement project that will finally allow, after more than two thousand years, to return to the
community this important work of ancient hydraulic engineering.
Thus, the "ALBANUS PROJECT" was born.

ALBANUS PROJECT: INSIDE THE OLD EMISSARY
A documentary by Massimo D'Alessandro
Scripts: Carla Galeazzi, Massimo D'Alessandro, Mario Mazzoli
Scientific advice: Carlo Germani, Vittoria Caloi
Camera operator: Stefano Barbaresi, Massimo D'Alessandro, Marco Vitelli
Aerial filming: Francesco Marsala
Voice over: Marta Altinier, Alberto Bognanni, Mimmo Strati
Music: Flipper Music Editions
Executive Producer: Maria Teresa Pilloni
Editing and Direction: Massimo D'Alessandro
Format HDV 16:9
Running time: 53 minutes
Italian / English Subtitles
A HYPOGEA and A.S.S.O. (Archeologia Subacquea Speleologia Organizzazione) production.
Copyright 2019 - All rights reserved