This year Federico Fellini would have turned 100! To celebrate the anniversary of his birth, we honored the Italian Maestro with a webinar featuring Caterina D’Amico, former Dean of the Centro di Cinematografia Sperimentale in Rome and founding member of the Zeffirelli Foundation in Florence.
Federico Fellini, probably the world’s most famous Italian film maker, and 5 times Oscar winner, had unrivaled success. His feature films, all set in Italy, tell stories that cannot be classified as conventional genres, but deemed necessary the coining of its own fantastic and surreal “felliniesque” genre.
What makes his movies so personal and yet so captivating? This webinar explored the mind of Fellini through film bits and rare interviews to testify his genius and creativity.
This program is part of Fare Cinema 2020, an initiative by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation promoting Italian quality film productions in the world.
Webinar Recorded on June 18th, 2020 (via YouTube)
CATERINA D’AMICO
Born in Rome, Caterina D’Amico began her career working as a theatre company director from 1972-1976, and during that time produced sixteen plays in Rome. Up until 1980 she also worked for seven years with the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto (Italy) and Charleston (USA), where she alternated between the technical and the artistic departments.
Caterina has written and directed several TV programs, which include portraits of performing artists (such as Luchino Visconti – in eight episodes – and Vittorio Gassman – in six episodes). She has written articles and essays published in Italy and abroad, and several books including the survey in two volumes, Visconti – Il Mio Teatro, which is still considered the most important study ever published on Visconti as a theatre director.
Since 1976 she has conceived, designed and curated thirty-four exhibitions on themes related to the performing arts, which have been held in Italy, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Greece, Portugal, USA, Canada, Argentina, Japan. She was also in charge of the exhibition catalogues, many of which are considered monographies in their own right. Several of her major exhibitions were devoted to design and fashion. She has also organized and directed film retrospectives in Italy and abroad.
From September 1988 to August 1994 Caterina was General Delegate of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (the Italian state Academy of Cinema and the Italian National Film Archives). From October 1993 to May 2000 she was the coordinator of GEECT (Groupement Européen des Ecoles de Cinéma et de Télévision), an Association that represents sixty distinguished European schools. From 1999 to 2007 she was Head of Studies of the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema (National Film School). In May 2000 she was elected President of CILECT (Centre International des Ecoles de Cinéma et de Télévision), the International Association of Film schools. Caterina was also the founding member and President of the “Théatre des Italiens” Foundation, which was active in Rome and Paris from 1998 – 2003.
In July 2007 Caterina was appointed CEO of Rai Cinema. Between January 2013 and 2018 she was again Dean of the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. Caterina D’Amico is also one of the funding members of the Fondazione Franco Zeffirelli in Florence.