A "White Coat Day", to be celebrated every year on February 20, to honor the work, commitment and sacrifice of health workers who are fighting against coronavirus. Ferzan Ozpetek launched the proposal, with the active support of Siae, which launched a petition and appealed to the President of the Republic Mattarella and to the highest offices of the state.
An idea, explains the director of The Ignorant Fairies, who came out listening to the stories on the phone of the medical friends who left Rome to go and help the hospitals in the north. "I would like if a child, maybe 10 years from now, would ask us What does White Coat Festival mean? We could tell the stories of the women and men who worked and sacrificed themselves to help others. - she explains - She will also be a day of remembrance for those who lost their lives, but above all a celebration and thanksgiving for all those who work in hospitals. People we cannot, we do not want, we must not forget when this emergency is over ".
The date proposed by Ozpetek - and suggested to the director by Luciana Littizzetto - is February 20, the day on which Annalisa Malara, anesthesiologist at the Codogno hospital, discovered that Mattia, the 38-year-old identified as "patient One", had been attacked by Coronavirus. The president of Siae Mogol supported the proposal and asked the director Gaetano Blandini to prepare a petition, "open not only to the 90 thousand SIAE members but to all artists and more generally to all citizens". The answer was not long in coming: there are already 144 members of big names in entertainment and culture, from Alessandro Gassman to Carlo Verdone, from Caterina Caselli Alessandro Cattelan, from Al Bano to Alba Rohrwacher, Andrea Bocelli and Ambra Angiolini, only for mention a few. On April 21, Siae will put the platform www.festadeicamicibianchi.it online: where to sign the appeal.