Contribution short abstract:

The essay film explores how people who have experienced a TBI negotiate their physical body, identity, social and moral relations, imagination. On one track auto-ethnographers who have had a TBI and their use of creative and audiovisual practices, on the other my reflections on their journey

Contribution long abstract:

In 2005 I experienced a TBI with coma and multiple fractures, due to a car accident in Rome. The essay film explores the inter-subjective experience of TBI in Rome: how people who have experienced a TBI, negotiate their physical body, identity and sense of self, social and moral relations following a life-changing event?

The film develops on two tracks: one on research participants' auto-ethnographic journey of self-discovery, the other on my reflection on "their" journey.

Dialogues and audio-visual practices take us in different directions from the day when "the world changed", which most people who have had a TBI do not remember, to their current life routines: on a wheelchair, watching music videos ( Kasimu), doing sport and role play (Valerio), in a office (Francesco). What is performing? What is living? What is living an imaginary life? "I live as if the accident had never happened"

Gabriele states with a laughter.

Marika' s accident is the most recent one and she is full of questions. Were her professional expectations too high, in any case, as her psychotherapist has suggested to her? Her new world includes zucchini, she did not know she liked zucchini before her accident. Which other new possibilities can she envisage?

After TBI Mario, Sherry Lee, and Brunella have learnt to live a more calm life. Each discovers or explains their new way of being in a different and enriching way.

On the other track I move in the streets of Rome, traffic is the main cause of TBI in Rome, reflecting on their journey