“Capturing the moment is not just about witnessing an event: from carefully choosing what to frame, to artfully using the light, every effort goes towards faithfully portray what you are experiencing. I believe in the importance of immersing myself in a situation to fully understand the process that lays behind a certain human action or phenomenon”.

NHA SANTA ISABEL  (HD, 6 min. 2019)
Status: completed and available on my Vimeo channel linked below

Nah Santa Isabel is a short documentary shot and edited in April 2019. Francesco collected data through semi-structured interviews in Maio, Cabo Verde over a short span of time. The short piece gives account for the stolen boat of Pedro Oliveira, which lost its main means of support, but definitely not his hopes. As a backdrop of the story the incredible graffiti art the crew found while strolling down Vila do Maio (formerly Porto Inglês) with the fisherman protagonist of the film.

THE MAKING OF LISSA (HD, 38 min. 2017)
Status: completed and self-distributed worldwide via Vimeo On Demand

The Making of Lissa offers a different angle on the cross disciplined collaboration between prof. Sherine Hamdy (UC Irvine), and prof. Coleman Nye (Simon Fraser University) and RISD graduate Sarula Bao and Caroline Brewer. The team worked tirelessly into the production of the graphic novel Lissa: A Story about Medical Promise, Friendship, and Revolution.
Lissa is set in Cairo, Egypt where the fictional protagonists Anna and Layla learn to come to terms with illness, faith, and political resistance against the backdrop of Egypt’s Arab Spring. The Making of Lissa provides a unique behind the scenes experience by following the team of researchers and artists to their trip to Cairo, Egypt in 2016 where they meet local artists, teachers, historian and doctors and they visit the places where the graphic novel takes place. Moreover, the film gives account for the final steps the team made in 2017 towards the launch of the book. By posing questions rather than giving answers, it aims to spark interest and to provide insight into the complex and multifaceted steps that go into creating an ethnoGRAPHIC novel.

Screenings
2020 – New York University in Shangai (Shangai, China)
2020 – Emerson College, Paramount Theatre (Boston, MA) – USA
2019 – Illuminations Event, UC Irvine (Irvine, CA) – USA
2017 – Watson Institute for International Studies (Providence, RI) – USA
2017 – AAA – Annual Meeting (Washington D.C) – USA

SHARED VISIONS (HD, 50 min. 2013)
Status: completed and available upon request

Shared Visions is an ethnographic documentary that describes a cross-continental artistic collaboration between two amateur artists, Piet van Peter and Zeradawit Weldarafael. Based on ethnographic research conducted between the Netherlands and Ethiopia, the film addresses what being a non-professional artist means across cultural frontiers. Piet is an American artist whose vocation for painting originates in a search for pleasure and personal self-fulfillment. Zeradawit, on the other hand, responds to a spiritual call, using painting as an expression of faith. Despite their different undertakings, techniques, and figurative styles, the two painters contaminate each other’s styles, with a strong commitment to building an enriching collaboration.

Screenings
2013 – Kinomoviemento (Berlin, Germany)
2014 – Pllek (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
2014 – Cinema Massimo (Turin, Italy)
2014 – Cecchi Point (Turin, Italy)
2015 – Cable Car Cinema (Providence, RI) – USA