ALIZA WONG

Director of the American Academy in Rome for the three-year period 2022-25, she teaches History, and is ad interim Headmaster of the Honors College at Texas Tech University in Lubbock and directs the European Studies section there. Her research interests are on Italy and the Mediterranean with a particular focus on race, nation, culture and identity, as well as on diaspora and migration in Italy. She has won numerous teaching and research awards and has been recognized for her work on issues of diversity, equal opportunity, inclusion and belonging. In 2018 she was named Lubbock YWCA Woman of the Year for her work on social justice. In the field of public and engaged learning, Wong directs Texas Liberators, a multimedia educational project. She produced the documentary “Narratives of Modern Genocide” (directed by Paul Allen Hunton, 2021) and curated the related exhibition, funded by the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission. Her works include Race and Nation in Liberal Italy, 1861-1911: Meridionalism, Empire, and Diaspora (Palgrave-Macmillan).

The photo of Aliza Wong was taken by Tif Holmes.

CÉLINE LOISEAU

Céline Loiseau graduated from the University of Poitiers with a Masters Degree in Documentary Film Directing. In 2002, she joins TS Productions, a production company created by Miléna Poylo and Gilles Sacuto. Ever since, she produced about 40 documentaries, including Home Sweet Home, by Nadine Naous, Grand Hotel Ballet by Jacques Deschamps, or Ash and Ember, directed by Manon Ott, both released in 2019 in France. She also produced last Philibert’s film, On the Adamant, Golden Bear winner of the last Berlinale. She is a member of the Eurodoc network, gives classes at INASup and participates in various professional commissions.

GIORGIO GOSETTI

Giorgio Gosetti is a journalist, a critic and a cultural organizer. From 1980 to 1982 he collaborated with Carlo Lizzani as manager of the Permanent Activities at Biennale Cinema. He has been deputy director of the Mostra with Gillo Pontecorvo from 1991 to 1995. He directed MystFest, he founded and directs Noir in Festival and Giornate degli Autori, he founded the Festa del Cinema di Roma, and directed the Casa del Cinema di Roma. He teaches Organising and Managing Festivals and Exhibitions Workshop at IULM, Universtity of Milan.

FIROUZEH KHOSROVANI

Born in Teheran, Firouzeh Khosrovani settled in Italy to pursue her artistic studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. She made her debut as a filmmaker in 2004 with Life Train. In 2007 she directed Rough Cut, a film about mutilated plastic mannequins in the shop windows of Tehran, followed in 2008 by Cutting Off, an installation and video art piece for the museum of Triennale di Milano.

Among her works: 1001 Irans (2010), a documentary about the image of Iran, outside of Iran; Espelho Meu (2011), directed by Vivian Altman (Brazil), Irene Cardona (Spain), Isabel Noronha (Mozambique) and Firouzeh Khosrovani, is a series of audiovisual pieces in dialogue with each other, about the cultural construction of identities, the meaning of the body for women and the way in which the same canons of beauty and the same concept of attractiveness are shared; Profession: Documentarist (2014) is a film in seven episodes, made by seven Iranian women directors. Fest of Duty (2014) – Oxfam Justice Award, IDFA, 2014, Audience Award FICFUSA, Colombia 2015, IDA – Best International Documentary Award, Vienna 2016 – is about a religious ceremony in Iran designed to instill Islamic beliefs and values into girls, when they reach the age of nine. Radiograph of a Family (2020) is a Pre- and Post-revolutionary story of the daughter of a secular father and a devout Muslim mother as they co-exist under one roof. It is winner of twenty-seven prizes such as “Creative Use of Archive” and “Best film” at IDFA 2020 and Best Documentary Prize at Sole Luna Doc Film Festival 2022.

JUAN CARLO RECHE

Juan Carlos Reche is director of the Cervantes Institute of Palermo and was director in Rome until last year. A lover of Italian poetry of the late twentieth century, in addition to being himself the author of books of poetry, he has translated, among others, Giorgio Caproni, Giovanni Raboni, Maurizio Cucchi, Nanni Balestrini, receiving in 2013 the National Award for Translation from the MIBAC. He has published two collections of poems: El dolor y la velocidad (Renacimiento, Sevilla, 1999) and Carrera del fruto (Pre-Textos, Valencia, 2006), translated into Portuguese in 2007 (Carreira do fruto) and in Italian in 2013 ((La corsa del frutto). He edited the critical edition of the Hispano-American poets Roberto Juarroz and Arturo Carrera for the Almanacco dello Specchio (Mondadori).