(ANS – Turin – October 9, 2026) – An intense and moving story came to the big screen at Turin’s Cinema Massimo with Crescendo – Stories in the Making, a documentary by Matteo Bellizzi, produced by CNOS-FAP Piedmont and screened on the opening day of the Job Film Days festival.

An engaged audience watched the 40-minute documentary, immersing themselves in the daily lives of young men and women, trainers, and entrepreneurs. The film takes viewers into moments that are often small and seemingly ordinary, when a person begins to recognize their own abilities, finds someone willing to believe in them, and starts imagining a different future while discovering their talents.

Crescendo tells the story of this very transition: personal growth through learning a trade.

Bellizzi’s film approaches the subject without rhetoric, allowing faces, voices, and relationships to speak for themselves. This authenticity became one of the screening’s strongest elements, conveying to the audience the profoundly human and educational dimension that is part of everyday life at vocational training centers (VTCs).

Following an introduction by Annalisa Lantermo, Bellizzi presented the documentary himself and participated in a discussion with the audience after the screening.

Moderated by Giuseppe Puonzo, head of communications at CNOS-FAP Piedmont, the discussion featured Fr. Giorgio Degiorgi, president of CNOS-FAP Piedmont; Matteo Faggioni, president of Forma Piedmont; and Giovanni Bocchieri, director of Education and the Right to University Education, Training, and Employment for the Piedmont Region.

The discussion began with the very question raised by the images the audience had just seen: What does it really mean to accompany a young person as they grow up?

With Fr. Degiorgi, the conversation returned to the roots of the Salesian experience and St. John Bosco’s educational vision. If Don Bosco were to walk into a vocational training center today and listen to the young people there, what question would he ask them before even talking about work?

This led to a second reflection on the role of vocational training centers: Should a center simply adapt to the demands of the labor market, or should it also have the courage to help shape the market itself?

This question points to a vision of education in which work is never separated from human dignity, responsibility, or the opportunity to grow as citizens and adults.

With Faggioni, the discussion focused on a prejudice that remains difficult to overcome. For many young people, vocational training is still portrayed as a second-best option, a path to pursue when other possibilities appear to have closed.

Why is vocational education still perceived as a fallback option? And who has a responsibility to help dismantle this prejudice?

The issue involves not only the education system but also families, schools, businesses, institutions, and the cultural perceptions surrounding different educational pathways.

Bocchieri was invited to take a broader view of the system: How can we build a model in which vocational training, school, and university are not steps in a hierarchy, but different pathways that people can choose from and move between?

This question directly concerns the ability of education policies to ensure equal standing among the various pathways, greater flexibility between them, and a guidance system that genuinely begins with individuals’ aptitudes, talents, and aspirations rather than cultural hierarchies that are increasingly out of step with the complexity of the modern world.

The discussion thus extended onstage what the film had conveyed through its images: Every pathway can become an opportunity when someone recognizes a person’s worth before considering their performance or the path they have chosen.

Perhaps this is one of the most powerful messages conveyed by Crescendo: Behind every skill acquired, every workshop, every work placement, and every qualification are young people building something far greater than a résumé.

They are building their own stories—stories that, just as the film’s title suggests, continue to grow.

Source: Salesians of Don Bosco Italy