Daniele Villa, Carlo Hintermann, Luciano Baracaroli, and Gerardo Panichi worked together in the Italian publishing house Ubulibri under the guidance of the late Franco Quadri. After having edited books on Otar Ioseliani, David Lynch and Takeshi Kitano, they chose to make a documentary about Terrence Malick since his films served as a prism through which they could view American cinema.
They met Malick in Milan in 2001 at a screening of the restored copy of Badland and, in 2002, the film Rosy-Fingered Dawn: A Film on Terrence Malick, directed by Luciano Baracaroli, Carlo Hintermann, Gerardo Panichi and Daniele Villa was presented at the Venice Film Festival.