Fabio Caramaschi

I started telling stories when I was a boy, but I understood the power of images in storytelling only after my education years were over. There was something that always fascinated me in still and moving images and movies have been an essential element of my education, but I never dreamed I could become a photographer and a filmmaker myself.

I started approaching photography during my high school years and only after getting my master University degree in philosophy I realized that photography could become a possible way of earning a living travelling, knowing different cultures and meeting people.

Having studied philosophy of language, aesthetichs and cinema, I was and I still am attracted by the theoretical implications of the complex process of representation in photography and cinematography. But it was only becoming a free lance photographer that I discovered that, with the due respect for books and libraries, images could became for me a key to explore the world inside and outside me.

As an anthropological Researcher and as a reporter I travelled extensively around Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, USA and Australia, realizing reportages for magazines, photographic books and exhibitions. While I travelled as much as I could, in the periods I spent in Rome between travels I developed technical skills in portrait and still-life large format studio photography. In the early ninenties I reunited these two apparently contrasting aspects of my photographic interests, bringing large format cameras in reportage situations to realize 4by5 inches portraits and infrared landscapes.

In the same period I I worked on feature-film sets as a still photographer and attended a two years cinema school that integrated my theoretical and critical background in cinema studies with the more practical informations I needed to become a professional film-maker.While I was working for production companies like Palomar and national television channels like all RAI channels and La7, I started to develop the long term documentary projects that became my main production in the following 15 years.

In addition to my audiovisual Production I have been also a tenured teacher in the Italian school system for over twenty years and I have directed audio-visual learning programs, including workshops in Italian and American Universities.

Right now I am distributing my feature-lenght documentary film Dark Corner (Pugni in faccia), selected at IDFA and short-listed for the Globo d’oro prize and I am working at both a documentary and a feature film projects presently in an early stage of development.

FILMS

2018 Dark Corner, 95′, produced by Trullove Film, Italy
2014 Starting over again, produced by Boise State University, Idaho, USA
2012 Porta Portese, 52′, brodcast by RAIDUE
2010 One Way. A Tuareg Journey, 52′, brodcast by RAITRE, RSI Swiss Television
2005 La donna di ferro, 90′, produced by Palomar
2004 Doing extra time, 90′, produced by Palomar; brodcast by RAITRE
2001 Residence Roma, 45′, produced by Palomar; brodcast by RAITRE
1998 Vicino al legno, 60′, produced by the National Museum of Arts and Traditions
1996 El treno de San Antonio, 10′, Latin America Film Festival, Cuba
1995 Game over, 60′, produced by the National Museum of Arts and Traditions
1993 Ava Takuli, 15′, Oberhausen Film Festival

PRIZES&AWARDS

2015 Babel Film Festival Premio Maestrale Migliore Documentario
2012 Best Director Prize, Asti Film Festival, Italy
2011 Grosse Klappe Prize, Duisburger Filmwoche | Doxs Duisburg, Germany
2011 Best Documentary Prize, Opere Nuove Film Festival, Bolzano Italy
2011 Best Italian Documentary Award, Arcipelago Film Festival, Rome, Italy
2011 Audience Prize Goshort International Film Festival, Nijmegen, Holland
2010 Best Treatment Award, Libero Bizzarri Documentary Festival, S. Benedetto del Tronto, Italy
2007 Best Script Prize, Siena Documentary Festival Hai visto mai, Siena, Italy
2006 Stefano Taché Award, conferred by The Major of Rome, Italy
2005 CinemAvvenire Best Italian Film Award, VIII Genova Film Festival, Genova, Italy
2003 Best Short Film, Alice nelle città Festival, Rome, Italy
2002 Audience Prize and Special Mention, Maremma Doc Festival, Pitigliano, Italy
2002 Jury Prize and Audience Prize, Roma Doc Fest, Rome, Italy
2001 Best Screenplay Award, Centro Cinematografia per ragazzi, Italy
2001 Pegaso d’Oro for best Documentary Film, Premio Ennio Flaiano, Pescara, Italy
2001 Italia Doc Prize for Best Italian Film, Libero Bizzarri Documentary Festival, S. Benedetto del Tronto, Italy
1999 Città di Mazara del Vallo Award for Intercultural Activities, Sicily, Italy

BOOKS

2019 “Un campo chiuso di forze” in AAVV Minatori di memorie2, Patron, Bologna
2014 “Choosing a Documentary Style” in AAVV Film Education, Linus Learning, Ronkonkoma, NY, USA
2006 Zambia, ed. Charta, Milan-New York, 90 BW photographs 21×28 cm
2002 Mali, ed. Unigraph, Reggio Emilia, 56 p., 28 BW photographs 24×30 cm
1999 Il confine, Region of Sicily, Palermo 113 p., 51 BW photographs 21×26 cm
1998 Le feste giocate, ed. De Luca, Rome, 207 p., 70 color photographs  25×30 cm
1995 Robert Wilson, disegni di Gibellina, catalogue, Feltrinelli, Milan 25×30 cm

EXHIBITIONS & CORPORATE VIDEO

2017 The Age of Coal (Polaroid Portraits), Atlas Center Antwerpen
2016 L’âge du charbon (personal), Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Bruxelles
2010 Fabula (collective) Museum of San Salvatore in Lauro, Rome
2009 Fresh (collective) Projects Gallery, Philadelphia
2008 African Portraits (personal) Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò, NY University, New York
2007 One Image Day (collective) Bloomsbury Auction Space, Rome
2006 Ab-Origine (personal) Polaroid Portraits of Australian Aborigines, Katherine, Australia
2006 Camera Obscura Africana (personal) Galleria Venticorrenti, Milan
2005 Africa in 4 x 5 inches (personal) Amanei Art Gallery, Salina, Sicily
2004 Shael (personal) Comune di Cuneo e di Asti, Cava dé Tirreni
2003 Mali (personal) International Festival of Contemporary African Cultures, Milan
2002 Festa d’Africa (personal) Municipality of Rome
2001 Tuareg (personal) Agadez (Niger) and Rome

2017 TV spot and national communication campaign for A.A.
2016 TV spot communication campaign on organ transplatation for Istituto Superiore Sanità
2014 Filming of Bob Wilson Ila Galigo theatrical show, for Change performing Arts, Milan
2012 Refugee Health Screening video for Idaho Department of Healt and Welfare Boise, Idhao, USA
2010 Cittadini immigrati verso Roma Capitale, for the Rome Municipality
2005-2007 Series of TV reports (broadcast by BBC and CNN) on UN Agency IFAD development projects
2001-2008 Video producer and live web coverage international convention on HIV-AIDS in major world capital  

 TV PROGRAMS

2010 Presadiretta, brodcast by italian national channel RAITRE
2004 Chi è di scena, brodcast by italian national channel RAI SAT
2004 Gente di notte, brodcast by italian national channel RAIDUE
2003 Altra storia, brodcast by italian national channel LA7
2002 Roma chiama Jhoannesburg, special for RAI EDUCATIONAL
2001 Quella mattina a Manhattan, report on September 11 attack, RAIUNO
2000 Così va il mondo, broadcast italian national channel RAITRE
1999 I ragazzi del novantanove, brodcast by italian national channel RAITRE
1998 Okkupati, brodcast by italian national channel RAITRE
1995-1998 Fermata d’autobus, brodcast by italian national channel RAITRE

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

2017 The Roman dialect the poetry G.G. Belli, workshop with Dartmouth students in Rome
2016 Discovering Pasolini in Rome, two days intense workshop with Dartmouth students in Rome
2014 Film Education pub. by Linus Learning, Ronkonkoma, NY
2014 Documentary workshop on incarcerated youth, Boise State University, Idaho, USA
2013 Documentary workshop Starting over again, Boise State University, Idaho, USA
2012 Documentary workshop on latino community, Boise State University, Idaho, USA
2012 Four week workshop on documentary film making, Boise State University, Idaho, USA
2011 Lecture and screening Italian identity in film, University of Illinois-Urbana-Campaign in Rome
2011 Workshop Multiculturality in Rome, Wellesley College at Dilit, Rome
2011 Screening at New echoes and voices in italian studies, California state University, Chico
2010 Screening and presentation, College of Education, Boise State University, Idaho, USA
2010 Workshop African Identity in italian colonial photography, Genoa University, Savona
2010 Workshop on series of screenings Inside Documentary, Genoa University, Savona
2001-2002 Director of audiovisual training center at Corviale High School, Rome
1998-2000 Director European Community trans-national program Youthstart M.I.N.E. (Prot: 0295-E2-Y-M)
1997-1999 Director of audiovisual workshop Marcello Mastroianni in public school of Rome