A small radio armed only with its frequencies and a country in search of new rights.
Like that time in the 1980s when a mobilization was born from the night broadcasts with open microphones of Radio Radicale that led to the approval of the law (L. April 24, 1982, n. 164) on the right to change sex.
Unlike what is happening these days with the Zan bill, the taboos of forty years ago did not stop a provision that enshrined the right of everyone to affirm their sexual identity.
To remember the episode is Francesco Rutelli in the documentary film "Onde Radicali" directed by Gianfranco Pannone written with Marco Dell'Omo and Simonetta Dezi. The docufilm hit the first take in recent days in Rome and will be broadcast in the autumn on Sky Documentaries (channels 122 and 402). A production strongly desired by Mario Mazzarotto with Movimento Film and made with the support of the Ministry of Culture.
"We fought for the right to change sex - says Rutelli - it could not have been done without Radio Radicale. The citizens were there because they were called by the broadcaster, they also came at night and demonstrated in front of Montecitorio together with the trans who threatened to undress" . It is the first blow scored "by a passionate minority that has changed customs and laws", are still the words of the former mayor of Rome. The law was also voted by the DC and promulgated by the then President of the Republic Sandro Pertini. And the Vatican had nothing to complain about. It was April 14, 1982 and the Italian parliament, among the first in Europe, recognized the right of transsexuals to register their new sexual identity at the registry office and on documents.
It is just one of the many stories told by "Onde Radicali", a documentary that traces the most significant stages of a radio that has revolutionized, in almost half a century of Italian and international news, the way of doing journalism and information. The story revolves around four news events that left their mark in the country and of which Radio Radicale was the protagonist and direct witness: the killing of Giorgiana Masi during a demonstration promoted by radicals in 1977, the kidnapping and release of judge Giovanni D. 'Urso, the arrest and judicial pillory suffered by Enzo Tortora, the killing of the radio correspondent in Chechnya Antonio Russo.
Many witnesses populate the documentary: Emma Bonino, Francesco Rutelli, Roberto Giachetti, Rocco Papaleo, Tony Garrani, Gianfranco Spadaccia and many others. From the voice of those who built the radio in the 70s (Pino Pietrolucci, Paolo Vigevano) you will hear the energy of a decade that was not only that of the years of lead, while the tapes kept in the archive will return the voices of Enzo Tortora and Leonardo Sciascia. Memories also held together by the famous radio conversations between Marco Pannella and Massimo Bordin.