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Biography of Davide Ferrario

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- Critic, essayist, écrivain, distributor, agent, scriptwriter, director, producer...

Born in 1956. Lives in Torino. Ferrario started as a critic and an essayist for many different magazines ; he is the author of the first Italian book on R.W.Fassbinder (1982). He also translated About John Fordby Lindsay Anderson. He keeps writing about cinema in a few newspapers and magazines.

At the end of the 70’s, he created a distribution company which released in Italy Andrzej Wajda’s Man of Marble and Wim Wenders’ Kings of the Road. He then became an agent and worked for directors/independant producers such as John Sayles, Susan Seidelman, and Jim Jarmusch. He even played a small part in Matewan by John Sayles (nominated at the Oscars).

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His filmography as a scriptwriter-director consists in six features which all received great acclaim in Italy and the rest of the world, especially festivals (Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Toronto, Hong Kong) where Ferrario won many prizes. He is, amongst other distinctions, the only Italian director to have ever been invited twice at Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival. Tutti giù per terra won the award Best Actor 1997 in Locarno.

Ferrario is also known for his documentaries. His trilogy on the patriot guerilla in Correggio is very popular, as are his documentaries on the rock-band CSI. In 1991, he co-produced, directed, and edited American Supermarket, a series of six episodes on the Golden Age of the consumer’s society made in USA. The rights were bought by more than 20 countries.

In 1994, he published Fade to Black, a novel on Orson Welles’ travel to Rome in 1948 which skillfully mixes true facts with the traditional ingredients of the thriller-genre. This book won the Hemingway Award and was translated into many languages ; the rights for a film version (based on a script by John Sayles) were sold to Dakota Films (London).

Davide Ferrario is definitely independant ; he even has his own production company so as to stay free and never lose control on his projects. He is also a voting member of the European Film Academy.


Filmography

1986 QUARANTACINQUESIMO PARALLELO (feat. director and script-writer)
1987 NON DATE DA MANGIARE AGLI ANIMALI (short, director and script-writer)
1988 OCCHI CHE VIDERO (doc., script-writer)
1989 LA FINE DELLA NOTTE (feat., director and script-writer)
1990 COLORS / LA CASA (TV shorts, director and script-writer)
1991 AMERICAN SUPERMARKET (TV-series, 6 episodes , editor, director, and producer)
1991 LONTANO DA ROMA (doc., director and producer)
1992 MANILA PALOMA BLANCA (f., script-writer)
1994 ANIME FIAMMEGGIANTI (f., director and script-writer)
1995 A RIMINI (sh., director, script-writer, and producer)
IL FIGLIO DI ZELIG (sh., director, script-writer, and producer)
MATERIALE RESISTENTE (docu-fiction, director and producer)
1996 CONFIDENTIAL REPORT (tv special, director and script-writer)
ESTATE IN CITTA' (sh., director and script-writer)
1997 TUTTI GIU' PER TERRA (f., director and script-writer)
PARTIGIANI (docu-fiction, co-director)
SUL QUARANTACINQUESIMO PARALLELO (doc.,director)
1998 FIGLI DI ANNIBALE (f., director and script-writer)
IN PRINCIPIO ERANO LE MUTANDE (f., script-writer)
1999 GUARDAMI (f., director and script-writer)
2000 LINEA DI CONFINE (doc., editor, director, and production)
LA RABBIA (doc.,producer and director)
2001 LE STRADE DI GENOVA (doc., producer and director)
FINE AMORE MAI (doc.)
2002 I TIGI A GIBELLINA (stage-director for TV play)
2003 MONDONUOVO (doc.)
TEATRO CIVICO / REPORT (starring Marco Paolini, six monologues for TV, director)
DOPO MEZZANOTTE (f. producer, script-writer, and director)

Books

1982 RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER, La Nuova Italia
1983 REINHARD HAUFF, Ravenna
1983 MRINAL SEN, Bergamo Film Meeting
1984 JOHN FORD by Lindsay Anderson, Ubulibri (transl.)
1986 I MONGOLI SUL PO, story, Il Manifesto
POLLO FRITTO, story, Il Gambero rosso
1987 DENNIS HOPPER, AIACE
1994 DISSOLVENZA AL NERO, novel, Longanesi Editore, Hemingway Award 1995
1995 MATERIALI RESISTENTI, essay and pictures, Dinosaura
1999 GUARDAMI - STORIE DAL PORNO, essay, ManifestoLibri

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(Translated from Italian)

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