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Interview: Director Giuseppe Marco Albano


On the second night of the Giornate del Cinema Lucano, an annual film festival held in the southern port city of Maratea, a number of local filmmakers will present their projects. Among them is Giuseppe Marco Albano. I've been following Albano's work for several years, and enjoying all he's done in the southern regions of Basilicata and Puglia. In 2015, he won a David Di Donatello for his short film Thriller, the story of a young boy living in the Pugliese town of Taranto, who dreams to emulate his idol Michael Jackson in the foreground of the city's controversial industrialization. Albano used regional actors from Basilicata and Puglia, including Anna Ferruzzo, to tell the story in the most genuine, authentic way possible. Albano worked closely with his lifelong friends Angelo Troiano and Sergio Ragone. Together, the trio is a force to be reckoned with when promoting the infinite beauty and natural resources of their beloved Basilicata. The short film is a masterpiece and the David Di Donatello, well-deserved.

That need to present his native south in an authentic, modern way is what makes Albano's work stand out and has made him a sought-after director also for the region's tourism sector in promoting Basilicata as a location for filmmaking, relocating and vacationing. During the last year, I have been interviewing Albano and following his latest projects for a feature story in Fra Noi Magazine of Chicago. However, on the grand occasion of finally being able to meet this extraordinary young artist in person at this festival of cinema in Maratea, I thought it would be fitting to publish a portion of our interview. I found his answers to my questions fascinating, so I didn't want to edit anything in order for our readers to really understand the profound depth of this director. Albano and I communicate in Italian, so both versions are included.

Tell me about your childhood and your movie impressions as a boy.
I do not come from a family of artists and art lovers. My parents are normal people. My father is from Brindisi (Puglia) and my mother is from Bernalda (Basilicata). I had a simple childhood growing up in southern Italy, playing ball in the street with friends. I attended school in the countryside but I had a particular love, almost visceral for cinema, even though there was not a movie house in Bernalda where I grew up. The last one closed in 1979. I was born in 1985 and in the early 90s, Italian TV aired great films. Not only were we lucky enough to watch an American movie every night but also RAI conveyed the best of Italian cinema, which later made me fall in love with the seventh art and unknowingly formed me during my childhood. At that time, I did not know yet that I wanted to be a director. I discovered it by accident by collecting hundreds of tapes- my father taught me to record videos with the VHS video recorder, and from that moment on I started collecting hundreds of thousands of VHS movies.. Roberto Benigni, Massimo Troisi, Francesco Nuti, Castellano and Pipolo, Sergio Corbucci, Sergio Citti, Carlo Verdone, Steno, Pasquale Festa Campanile and then actors such as Renato Pozzetto, Adriano Celentano, Enrico Montesano. And how can I not remember those that made all of us stay glued for full days to the TV.. Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill. These are the myths of my childhood. This was my cinema as a child.

Parlami della tua infanzia e le tue impressioni del cinema (come ragazzo).
Non provengo da una famiglia di artisti ne amanti dell’arte, tutt’altro, i miei genitori persone normalissime, papà Brindisino e mamma Bernaldese mi hanno cresciuto semplicemente, così come cresce un bambino al Sud Italia, giocavo a pallone per strada con gli amici e andavo a scuola in Paese, fin da piccolo però ho avuto un particolare amore, quasi viscerale per il Cinema, pur non avendo una sala cinematografica a Bernalda (l’ultimo era stato chiuso nel 1979), io sono dell’85 e nei primi anni 90 la TV italiana mandava in onda gran bei film, non solo avevamo la fortuna di guardare ogni sera un film americano ma inoltre la RAI trasmetteva tutto il meglio del Cinema Italiano, quello che poi con gli anni mi ha fatto innamorare della settima arte e mi ha formato inconsapevolmente durante la mia infanzia, all’epoca infatti, non sapevo ancora di voler fare il regista.
Lo scoprii per caso, collezionando centinaia di videocassette, mio padre mi insegnò al registrare con il videoregistratore VHS i film alla TV e da quel momento in poi iniziai a collezionare centinaia, migliaia di Film in VHS. Roberto Benigni, Massimo Troisi, Francesco Nuti, Castellano e Pipolo, Sergio Corbucci, Sergio Citti, Carlo Verdone, Steno, Pasquale Festa Campanile e poi attori come Renato Pozzetto, Adriano Celentano, Enrico Montesano e come non posso ricordare quelli che forse su tutti mi hanno fatto rimanere incollato per giorni interi alla TV, Bud Spencer e Terrence Hill, ecco i miti della mia infanzia. Era questo il mio Cinema da bambino.

Do you remember when you realized you wanted to become a director?
I have a strong, intense memory: one evening my friends dragged me out, despite the fact that my absolute idol Adriano Celentano was having a special that night on TV.
My dad had just taught me how to program the VHS video recorder and I instantly learned that something always goes wrong. When I came back from the boring evening, I realized that the timer of the VCR did not work and nothing was recorded. I cried all night, maybe for Adriano Celentano, maybe because of my anger. But on that occasion, I knew what I wanted to do. On that occasion I knew I wanted to become a director, without even knowing what a director did. I was 6 years old. That lesson helped me a lot, because with the passing of years I learned to shoot my first video with my dad's Sony camera and to use two VHS VCRs and a TV, all connected together. Those were my first homemade movies with my comrades of the media who became my protagonists and the composers of my soundtracks. When I was 13, I started shooting the first shorts.

Ti ricordi quando hai capito che volevi diventare un regista?
Ho un forte ricordo intenso: una sera i miei mi trascinarono in una di quelle serate da adulti, malgrado in televisione trasmettevano Asso, del mio idolo assoluto Adriano Celentano.
Mio padre proprio in quell’occasione mi insegnò a programmare il videoregistratore VHS ed io imparai istantaneamente con quella maestria che sempre i bambini mostrano nei confronti delle nuove tecnologie, ma qualcosa va storto. Al rientro dalla noiosa serata tra adulti, mi accorgo che il timer del videoregistratore non aveva funzionato, non registrando ovviamente nulla. Piansi tutta la notte, forse per Adriano Celentano, forse per la rabbia che avevo nei confronti dei miei genitori ma in quell’occasione capii cosa volessi fare da grande, in quell’occasione capii che volevo diventare un regista, non sapendo ancora cosa significasse fare il regista. Avevo 6 anni. Quella lezione mi fu di grande aiuto, perché con il passare degli anni, imparai a girare i primi video con la camera Sony di mio padre e per montare usavo appunto due videoregistratori VHS e una TV, tutti collegati tra loro. Quelli furono i miei primi film Home Made, con i miei compagni delle medie che diventavano i miei attori protagonisti e le sigle della TV le mie colonne sonore, avevo 13 anni quando iniziai a girare i primi cortometraggi.

In your youth, what movies and filmmakers inspired you to become a director?
In addition to the Italian Cinema I mentioned, I obviously loved Hollywood cinema. During my adolescence, those stories made us all a bit homesick for America. Tim Burton's Edward Scissorshands is a movie that I particularly loved, that extraordinary dark fairy tale with Johnny Deep and Winona Ryder speaking of a great love and all the great love that is impossible in a small Californian town with pastel houses. So Tim Burton became one of my favorite authors during the adolescent phase that, perhaps most of all, marked my film formation. After having finished high school and undergraduate studies, I discovered a new and hidden world of cinema. It was not yet the era of streaming, so to recapture a Truffaut or Godard film, you had to first study it and then  look for it in a video library or buy it on the internet. To understand the years I'm talking about, it was the time when we were switching from VHS to DVD and then to digital. From that moment on, a very long course of study had begun not only at university but also personal in the world of cinematography, ranging from Nouvelle Vague to Italian Neorealism, from Oriental Classical Cinema to New Masters of Asian Cinema, from European Cinema to Hollywood Cinema.

In gioventù, quali film e quali registi ti hanno ispirato a diventare un regista?
Oltre al Cinema Italiano di cui parlavo prima, ho amato ovviamente durante l’adolescenza il cinema Hollywodiano, quelle storie che ci ha fatto ammalare un po’ tutti del Mal D’America.
"Edward mani di forbice" di Tim Burton, un film che ho amato particolarmente, quella straordinaria favola dark con Johnny Deep e Winona Ryder che racconta di un grande amore e come tutti i grandi amori, impossibili, in una piccola cittadina Californiana con le case color pastello. Così Tim Burton divenne uno dei miei autori preferiti durante la fase adolescenziale quella che, forse più di tutte ha segnato la mia formazione cinematografica. Con il tempo, terminato il liceo intraprendendo gli studi Universitari, scoprì tutto un Mondo Cinematografico per me nuovo e nascosto, non era ancora l’epoca dello streaming, quindi per recuperare un Film di Truffaut o di Godard, dovevi prima di tutto studiarlo in facoltà e poi dovevi ricercarlo in videoteca o acquistarlo su internet, per far capire bene gli anni di cui sto parlando, era il momento in cui si passava dalla videocassetta VHS al DVD e quindi al digitale. Da quel momento in poi è iniziato un lunghissimo percorso di studi non solo Universitari ma anche personali sulla Cinematografia Mondiale, spaziando dalla Nouvelle Vague al Neorealismo Italiano, dal Cinema classico Orientale ai nuovi Maestri del Cinema Asiatico, dal Cinema Europeo a quello Hollywodiano. Potrei citarvi una lista infinita di regista, autori, attori, di tutte le epoche e di tutte le età, ma vi annoierei sicuramente. Mi limito quindi a parlare del mio percorso personale.

You were born in Puglia, you attended college in Emilia-Romagna and you live in Basilicata. How do these geographical experiences play a role in your work?
I was born in Apulia in Cisternino in the province of Brindisi but I grew up in Basilicata, in Bernalda, in the province of Matera, also the home to the origins of the great Francis Ford Coppola. After graduating from the Liceo Scientifico in my town, I went to study film photography in Aquila at the International Academy of Arts and Sciences of the Image. I attended for a year and then moved to Parma, enrolled in the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy where I studied theatre, cinema and new media arts. All of my studies have been training experiences, each of which has helped me to form myself, because as I always say, the craft of a creative person is not something that can be learned in school, in the academies. Training is definitely crucial in every sector but is not decisive in an artistic field. I define myself as an autodidact. The experiences that I have had in life have led me to tell stories and tell them in an interesting way (this is what others say, not me). When talking about schools or training, you always have to understand, cinema is so diverse and very different, but if there is no basis for passion, love, sacrifice and experience, it is difficult to learn in school how to direct an entire movie. I always say that the role of the director is like a conductor of an orchestra, because a conductor directs musicians, each with their instrument and creates the symphony, while a (film) director leads professionals who have different roles, each with their own character, with their own way of seeing things, to work and to relate to each other. So you have to be good at running an entire crew that will benefit the entire movie. It takes teamwork, a huge team at times, as in a feature film that will work closely for weeks, trying to make a great movie.
If the director will not be liked enough, it will not be a good movie.
If the director is unpleasant on the set, it will not be a good movie.
If the filmmaker will laugh with the troupe, he or she will not to be respected, and it will not be a good movie.
If the director parties with the actors, it will not be a good movie.
If the director does not find the right compromise between production and director, it will not be a good movie.
Each of these things will be the director's responsibility.
The movie is beautiful, who is the director?
The movie sucks, who is the director?
The film is a flop, who is the director?
The film is a masterpiece, who is the director?
In any case, the director will be responsible for everything, whether positive or negative. This is why not everyone can do this job, simply because not everyone wants to take this great responsibility in life.

Watch Stand by me...


Sei nato in Puglia, sei andato all'università in Emilia-Romagna e vivi in Basilicata. In che modo queste esperienze hanno un ruolo nel tuo lavoro?
Sono nato in Puglia a Cisternino in provincia di Brindisi, ma sono cresciuto in Basilicata, a Bernalda in provincia di Matera, il paese che ha dato tra l’altro i natali al grande Francis Ford Coppola. Finito il Liceo Scientifico proprio nel mio stesso paese, sono andato a studiare fotografia cinematografica all’Aquila presso l’Accademia Internazionale per le arti e le scienze dell’immagine che ho frequentato soltanto un anno, da li mi sono trasferito a Parma, iscrivendomi alla Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia con indirizzo Beni artistici, teatrali, cinematografici e dei nuovi media. Sono state tutte esperienze formative, ognuna di essere mi ha aiutato a formarmi personalmente, perché come dico sempre, il mestiere di un creativo non si impara a scuola, ne nelle Accademie, sicuramente la formazione è fondamentale in ogni settore, ma non è determinante nel campo artistico, io infatti mi definisco un autodidatta, sono state le esperienze che ho fatto nella vita che mi hanno portato a voler raccontare delle storie e a raccontarla in un modo interessante (questo è ciò che dicono gli altri, non io). Quando parlano di scuole o di formazione bisogna sempre capire bene, i mestieri del Cinema sono tanti e molto diversi tra loro, ma se non c’è una base di passione, amore, sacrificio, esperienza, è difficile uscire da una scuola formati a tal punto da poter dirigere un film intero. Dico sempre che il ruolo del regista è come un direttore d’orchestra di anime, perché nella musica un direttore d’orchestra dirige musicisti, ognuno con il proprio strumento e crea la sinfonia, mentre un regista, dirige professionisti che hanno ruoli diversi, ognuno con il proprio carattere, con il proprio modo di vedere le cose, di lavorare e di rapportarsi all’altro. Quindi bisogna essere bravi a dirigere tutta la troupe che porterà beneficio all’intero film che infine firmerà il regista, un lavoro di squadra, una enorme squadra a volte, come nel caso di un lungometraggio, che lavorerà a stretto contatto per settimane, cercando di fare un grande film.
Se il regista non verrà amato abbastanza, non sarà un bel film.
Se il regista risulterà antipatico sul set, non sarà un bel film.
Se il regista si incazzerà con la troupe non facendosi rispettare, non sarà un bel film.
Se il regista litigherà con gli attori, non sarà un bel film.
Se il regista non troverà il giusto compromesso tra produzione e regia, non sarà un bel film.
Ognuna di queste cose, sarà responsabilità del regista.
Il film è bello, chi è il regista?
Il film fa schifo, chi è il regista?
Il film è un flop, chi è il regista?
Il film è un capolavoro, chi è il regista?
In ogni caso il regista sarà il responsabile di ogni cosa, positiva o negativa che sia. Per questo non tutti possono fare questo mestiere, semplicemente perché non tutti hanno voglia di assumersi grandi responsabilità nella vita.

Tell me about the production of the beautiful music video you directed for the band Krikko Reggae.. Vivo in Lucania.
The videoclip Lukania for Krikka Reggae was really a very beautiful experience because the guys in the group are all childhood friends. I've known them all my life.
I shared with them years and years of passions for every kind of art until they became famous for music and I took the road to cinema, and I also tied my video clip to the heart because it speaks of my land, the beloved Basilicata or Lucania as it is often called, tells and analyzes with Reggae's rhythm all its merits and all that we really are, just as the story tells.

Watch the video...



Raccontami la produzione del bellissimo video per la canzone di Krikko Reggae.. “Vivo in Lucania”..
Il videoclip Lukania per la Krikka Reggae è stata sicuramente una bellissima esperienza sia perché i ragazzi della Krikka sono miei amici d'infanzia, li conosco da sempre, ho condiviso con loro anni e anni di passioni per ogni tipo di arte fino a che loro sono diventati famosi per la musica ed io ho preso la strada del cinema, inoltre ho legato stretto al cuore quel videoclip perché parla della mia terra, della tanto amata Basilicata o Lucania come viene spesso chiamata (come in questo caso),racconta e  analizza a ritmo di Reggae tutti i suoi pregi e tutto ciò che siamo veramente, come solo la krikka sa raccontare.

Tell me about the collaboration between you and your fellow Bernalda-born artist Gaetano Russo. He is noted for his work as a set designer and the two of you have worked many times on different projects.
The collaboration with Gaetano Russo began many years ago. I grew up at his side, trying to learn everything from his great experience as a multi-faceted and intellectual artist. He is a great artist with a talent for film and I have been among the lucky few who have had the pleasure of having him as a set designer. But to tell you the truth, Maestro Gaetano Russo has not only done the set design on my works. Most of the time, Gaetano is a life teacher, a wise man to inspire and from which to take an example. I'm always  glad to collaborate with him because he often has more energy than a kid and he can even give you the extra charge when it all seems to collapse. At that time, Gaetano helps you to get up and hold on to your movie, your dream.

Puoi dirmi qualcosa della tua collaborazione con l’artista lucano Gaetano Russo? Ho visto che avete lavorato molte volte insieme. Sembra una bella collaborazione tra due artiste di Bernalda.
La collaborazione con Gaetano Russo viene da lontanissimo, sono cresciuto al suo fianco, cercando di imparare tutto dalla sua grande esperienza come artista poliedrico e grande intellettuale, è un grande artista che si è concesso al cinema ed io sono stato tra quei pochi fortunati che hanno avuto il piacere di averlo come "scenografo", ma a dir la verità il Maestro Gaetano Russo non ha mai solo fatto lo scenografo sui miei lavori, il più delle volte Gaetano è stato un Maestro di vita, un uomo saggio a cui ispirarsi e dal quale prendere esempio. Sono contento di collaborare con lui sempre perché molto spesso è più giovane di un ragazzino e riesce a darti la carica anche quando sembra tutto crollare, in quel momento Gaetano ti aiuta a rialzarti e a mandare avanti il tuo film, il tuo sogno.

Giuseppe Marco Albano is currently working on a number of projects including a cine-tourism spot called Basilicata is More Than a Film, which features a number of renowned regional filmmakers speaking to the inspiration they find from the rich, historic land of Lucania. Here is a preceding spot in this series called Matera is More Than a Film

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