The documentary Pulling My Own Strings – La vita che mi diedi tells the extraordinary story of Anna Cuticchio, the first woman puppeteer in Sicily.
Kidnapped at 15 and forced into a shotgun marriage, she endured years of violence and discrimination before reclaiming her freedom.
In the 1970s she founded her own Opera dei Pupi theatre, reinventing traditional heroines and reshaping the art form.
Her personal journey mirrors six decades of women’s struggles in Italy, from the abolition of honor crimes to today’s fight against gender violence.
Through archives, Super 8 family films, and AI animations, the film brings Anna back on stage with her puppets and the Sicilian cunto.
Alongside her, voices of daughters, nieces, scholars, and artists weave a chorus of memory and resilience.
The film also reveals the fragility of the present: Anna is now 85 and battling Parkinson’s disease.
Telling her story means preserving a cultural legacy that risks being forgotten.
The project has been independently developed and self-funded for over five years, now seeking support to complete editing and post-production.
With your help, Anna will finally see the story of her life on screen.
