FRANCESCO BONSEMBIANTE

Graduated in Film Studies at the University of Padua, where he still lives and works today, Francesco Bonsembiante started to produce documentary films in 1999 with Carlo Mazzacurati’s Ritratti (Portraits, 1999-2002), a series of three documentaries dedicated to writers Mario Rigoni Stern, Luigi Meneghello and Andrea Zanzotto. On this occasion he met famous Italian actor Marco Paolini and they later founded the cinema and theatre production company Jolefilm, together with Michela Signori, Lorenza Poletto and Mario Paolini. For Jolefilm, Francesco Bonsembiante produces Marco Paolini’s theatre and broadcast works as well as documentaries, short films and long-length films by emerging talented authors including Andrea Segre, Pier Paolo Giarolo and Marco Segato. In 2011 he produced Andrea Segre’s first feature film “Io sono Li” and obtained Franco Cristaldi prize as well as the nominee as best producer for the David di Donatello and the Ciak d’Oro. In 2013 he produced Segre’s second feature film, “La prima neve”, premiering at 70. Venice Film Festival, and the documentary “Indebito”, written by Vinicio Caposella and Andrea Segre and directed by Andrea Segre, presented at Locarno Film Festival.

ROBERTO CORTELLAZZO
 WIEL

Born in Venice, Roberto Cortellazzo Wiel graduated in economics from Università di Ca’ Foscari. He lives and works in Treviso, where he is a partner in an economic and finance consulting firm specialized in extraordinary operations and business crisis. Passionate about contemporary art, of which he has become a collector, he is one of the founder of TRA Treviso Research Art, cultural association focused on contemporary art, which develops an intense activity through initiatives and exhibitions in the area, working with international curators and artists. The Association is also open to different disciplines, hosting musical, literary, theatrical events and film showcases. Since 2013 the Association has been running an independent space in the beautiful setting of the fourteenth-century, Ca’ dei Ricchi, which has become, in a short time, a landmark of contemporary culture in Treviso.

FRÉDÉRIC D’AGAY

Frédéric d’Agay, French historian, is the author of numerous works of social prosopography, about the provincial world and the Mediterranean sociability, networks, memories, sailors and travels in the modern era (including a complete edition of the Lettres d’Italie by the President de Brosses). Great-nephew of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, he founded and directed the Société Civile pour l’Oeuvre et la Mémoire de Saint Exupéry, an organization that works for the preservation of the work and memory of the writer, and chairs the Association Espace Saint Exupéry (1990-2005), which brings together 50 associations throughout the world. Since 2013 he has been also president of Vol de nuit/vuelo nocturno for disadvantaged children in Argentina and president of the Saint-Exupéry Prize for children’s literature. He took part in the topical blog “Le Onzième blog” (Le11emeblog.com). He lives between Paris and Provence.

DARIA GALATERIA

Daria Galateria lives between Rome and Paris; teaches French literature at Università “la Sapienza” in Rome and studies the past worlds, preferring the outdated: Proust and all writers of “Memoirs”. She wrote about the French Revolution (Paris, 1789) and about the Court of Versailles (Fughe dal re Sole, Grinzane Award), on writers in prison or at work (Scritti galeotti; Mestieri di scrittori). She collaborates in Radiorai and the group “Espresso”.

ERIK RAVELO

Erik Ravelo is a Cuban sculptor, painter and multi media-artist. He is currently a creative director at Fabrica, the communications agency owned by the Benetton Group in Treviso, Italy. His campaigns for Benetton include “Unhate” which featured the controversial images of world leaders kissing. He was awarded the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2012 for this series. His other projects include “Lana Sutra”, “The Unhate Dove” and “The Doping Thrower”. From 2007-2011 he was the Creative Director of Colors Magazine. His work has been published internationally and exhibited around the world. He was born in Havana, Cuba in 1978 and studied art there at the Accademia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro. When he was 18 he escaped Cuba to Argentina to persue his dreams of working freely as an artist.

TOBIA SCARPA

Tobia Scarpa (Venice 1935) works in the field of architecture, design and restoration. In 1969 he graduated in architecture at the University of Venice and in the same year he won the Compasso d’Oro prize for his “Soriana” armchair. For his work as a designer, he has been awarded many
other design prizes such as the “IF Industrie Forum Design Hannover” in 1992. Moreover, some of his objects are exhibited in the most important museums around the world including the Libertà chair at the Louvre in Paris. In the field of architecture, he works with public and private customers such as the Benetton Group. The projects created for Benetton are still regarded as a functional and aesthetic paradigm and as an exemplary work of industrial architecture. From 2002 to 2011 he taught at the Faculty of Design and Arts of the University of Architecture in Venice (Cladis). In October 2004, the Italian Cultural Institute dedicated a solo exhibition to his works in Chicago and in 2005 in Los Angeles. In 2008 he received the Compasso d’Oro award for lifetime achievement.

In Palermo two very special juries: a group of students from Liceo scientifico “Albert Einstein”, tutored by their teacher of History and Philosophy, and some boys and girls tutored by the “Gruppo Albatros”, an association of volunteers and members of the Psychiatric Unit staff of the “Policlinico Paolo Giaccone”, University of Palermo. In some sense, the Palermo edition of the festival was dedicated to them, to witness the educational aim of our project.