AGITARE PRIMA DELL’USO / SHAKE BEFORE USE by Mattia Piccioli, Michele Marchini | Italy | 2025
Shake Before Use is a short film that transcends traditional narratives while exploring the contrast and interaction between humanity and the world of communication. We explored the archaeology of communication tools used by humans until recently, now obsolete due to technological advancement. The objects we see have lost their original function and become seemingly useless remnants of a very recent past. Apparently useless, they are used as linguistic material, rediscovering a signaling function and beginning to communicate again. There is no nostalgic intent in this action; it is simply an investigation of what once seemed indispensable and then appears superfluous.
LANGUAGE : English, Italian, Spanish COUNTRY : Italy YEAR : 2025 DURATION : 5m DIRECTORS, WRITERS, PRODUCERS : Mattia Piccioli, Michele Marchini CAST : Michele Marchini DOP : Andrea Vatteroni, Melania Filidei SOUND DESIGN : Davide Farris
Acknowledgements : Iva Kontic, our professor, for her support and valuable advice during the making of the film.
Inspirations : For this short film, we were inspired by A Voyage in Dwelling by Jesper Just and World of Glory by Roy Andersson, exploring video art and experimental cinema practices to investigate the archaeology of communication tools and visual and sound experimentation.
Director statement : Agitare Prima Dell’uso / Shake Before Use was born from our curiosity about everyday objects and signs that, with technological progress, have lost their original function. We are interested in how these communication tools, seemingly obsolete, can still “speak” through new uses, becoming linguistic and symbolic material. The film has no nostalgic intent; rather, it aims to probe the boundary between what we consider indispensable and what, within a few years, becomes superfluous. The choice of visual and sound language reflects this tension between past and present: images and sounds combine to create a sensory experience that goes beyond linear narrative, inviting the viewer to engage with the rhythm and substance of now-inactive media. Every object, every detail, is a small signal that testifies to the recent history of human communication, and their creative use allows us to reintroduce them into a contemporary context. Our work is rooted in an independent and experimental approach, between social documentary, narrative short film, and video art. With Shake Before Use, we aim to stimulate reflection on the relationship between technology, communication, and perception, without filters or sentimentality. It is a visual investigation of the present and the recent past, and of how humans interact with what they create, transform, and abandon. In this sense, the film becomes a sort of “archaeology of signs,” a poetic mapping of material memory and the remnants of our era.
Bios : Mattia Piccioli (born in Carrara, 1998) and Michele Marchini (born in Carrara, 1955) collaborate in cinema and video art, exploring independent and experimental narratives. Mattia, graduated in Cinema and Audiovisual at the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara, creates documentaries, short films, and video art projects, including Io Immigrato, Lettera 32, and Agitare Prima dell’uso. Michele, director and writer, publisher of Senza Tribù, brings a narrative and reflective approach to his work, blending literature and moving images. Together, they investigate the relationship between people, territories, and communication, often giving voice to overlooked stories while experimenting with different visual and sound languages. Their cinema moves between social documentary, narrative short film, and video art, with constant attention to authenticity and formal experimentation.
Pebbles Underground is focused on showcasing and promoting experimental, avant-garde, underground, and no-to-low budget projects by artist-humans from all over the world. Absurd, uncanny, witty, humorous, slow-video – all are welcomed, and loved.
Pebbles Underground is an independent project not funded by any government or corporation, and we intend to keep it that way. Main source of funding is personal donations from humans organizing the project, who are artists themselves, and the main drive of the project is formed by the energy and involvement of the organizers, and the public.
