Antonio Puri Purini

Antonio Purini Purini, in over forty years of diplomatic service Ambassador, has held a wide range of positions in Rome (Office of the Prime Minister, Chief of Staff of the President of the Senate, Foreign Policy Advisor to the Italian President), and abroad (Washington, Munich, Tokyo, Madrid, Strasbourg, Berlin). In his diplomatic career he has developed a variety of experiences in different fields including political, economic and cultural issues. As a young diplomat during the Nixon Administration and as a Deputy Head of Mission during the Clinton Administration, he acquired a deep knowledge of American politics and keen interest in further strengthening the transatlantic partnership
As foreign policy advisor of President of the Republic of Italy Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, he was deeply involved in the process of European integration and in the problems of the Mediterranean basin.
As Ambassador to Germany Antonio Puri Purini concentrated on Europe, economy, culture as major instruments in consolidating the partnership between Italy and Germany.
 

Francesca Maria Corrao

Francesca Maria Corrao teaches Arabic Language and Culture at the Faculty of Political Science at LUISS University in Rome. She graduated and received his doctorate from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, and the MA in Arabic Studies at the American University in Cairo. She is a member of the Associations of Orientalists UEAI and Arabists EMTAR, of the Institute of Oriental Philosophy of Soka University in Tokyo and President of the Fondazione Orestiadi. She was visiting professor at Cairo, Beirut, Tunis, Damascus with numerous international publications. Her research focuses on the themes of literature, history and culture of Arab Countries. Among her works: Poeti Arabi di Sicilia (Mondatori 1 7; Mesogea 2001); Giufà il furbo, lo sciocco, the essay (Mondadori 1 1; Sellerio 2006); In un mondo senza cielo. Antologia di poesia palestinese (Giunti 2007); Adonis. Ecco il mio nome (Donzelli 200 ); Muhammad Bannìs. Il Mediterraneo e la parola (Donzelli 200 ); Le rivoluzioni arabe. La transizione mediterranea (Mondadori 2011).

 

Diego Gullotta

Diego Gullotta was born in Rome in 1976 where he received the master degree in Sociology, beforeleaving Italy he taught Chinese culture and Chinese history in IsIAO. He lives and works in China, previously in Shanghai and Nanjing and currently in Chongqing where he is Teaching Coordinator for the undergraduate program of Italian in Sichuan International Studies University and teacher of the general course in Sociology of Art and Literature (in Chinese). In the field of Cultural Studies he is studying Chinese urbanization; he is interested in Chinese cinema and two related articles by him are available at www.disorientamenti.wordpress.com (“Un Festival del Cinema Indipendente”, Lo Straniero, 133; Cinema cinese sorpreso entro margini visuali, Alias, 2012 n.3).

 

Nizar Al-Rawi

Nizar Al-Rawi is the President of Contemporary Visual Arts Society, Head of Iraq Short Film Festival.
Critic, writer, producer and researcher in the fields of visual arts, he is one of the founders of the movement of cultural renewal in post-Saddam Iraq.
He has been advisor to the Committee on Culture and media in the Iraqi Parliament (2006-200 ), to the Iraqi Association for support culture (2006-200 ), to the Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry (Task Force Iraq) (2006-200 ), of Muscat Film Festival (2010).
He has contributed to the transfer of Iraqi cinema, with a number of his colleagues, to a new stage of openness. He is author of several books and articles published in a large number of Arab newspapers and magazines. He is engaged in the field of cultural exchange between Arab culture and Europe.

 

Stefano Savona

Stefano Savona was born in Palermo in 1969. He studied archeology and anthropology in Rome and took part in several archaeological excavations in Sudan, Egypt, Turkey and Israel. In 1995 he began working as a freelance photographer. From 1999 he devoted himself mainly to the activity of director and producer of documentary films and video installations (D-Day, 2005, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris). His feature film Spring in Kurdistan (2006) has received the International Prize of the Festival Cinéma du Réel SCAM Paris and a nomination for the David di Donatello for Best Documentary Film. Piombo fuso won the Special Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival in the Cinéastes du présent. Palazzo delle aquile (2011) won the Paris Grand Prix du Cinéma du Réel. Tahrir Liberation Square (2011) has been presented, among others, at the New York Film Festival, at the Viennale at Doclisboa, and was projected in movie theatre in France in January 2012. In
2010 he founded in Paris with Penelope Bortoluzzi the Picofilms production company.