by Michele Diomà
It was 2015, and with film producer Donald K. Ranvaud (City of God – 4 Oscar Nominations), I was preparing my first Narrative Feature. I managed to hire Dario Fo, still today the last Italian playwright and actor to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature. That film, “Sweet Democracy,” made me realize what kind of director I was. In that first film, the seeds of Mavericks were already present, seeds from which, years later, the Wild Filmmaker revolution would emerge, currently the largest platform in the world dedicated exclusively to independent cinema.
In the fall of 2017, the film was presented at New York University and received a huge success, opening the doors to my American dream!
Also part of the team for that film was Cecilia Di Giulio, the artist who created the movie poster for “Sweet Democracy.” Our collaboration continued over the years, and after creating the movie poster for my second Narrative Feature, “Dance Again with me Heywood!” (2018), which featured Academy Award-winning James Ivory, she also created the movie poster for my film with Mariel Hemingway and Christopher Coppola, “O – the fiRSt mOvie by aN alien,” currently in post-production.
I am very happy to share today with the WILD FILMMAKER Community the first exclusive interview with Cecilia Di Giulio.
-Who is Cecilia Di Giulio?
This is a very difficult question! In short Cecilia is a girl born in Milan 38 years ago, with a thousand different passions, one of which she managed to turn into a real job, drawing. She loves cats, pizza and polka dots.
-What inspired you to become an artist?
My earliest memory is of me drawing a picture and I didn’t stop doing it for many years. At first maybe I drew to put on paper what populated my head, then anime came along and I started drawing just those, but it didn’t last that long. Over the years I broke away and got back into drawing many times. They said I wasn’t able to do it but then I realized there is no right and wrong way to do it and slowly I am looking for my own. Now I look for inspiration from everyday life, from other artists, from everything beautiful.
-Do you think the film industry today has been damaged by political correctness?
It depends. Thank goodness in the last few years the sensibility has changed and the way of addressing minorities or disadvantaged groups has changed, and this is right. Unfortunately, however, often, this new sensibility has led to the obligation to make changes in the stories we knew so that all categories feel recognized, but it is a straining that often casts the original intent in a bad light. If instead of modifying the stories we already know, new ones were written, making room for everyone perhaps cinema and art in general would benefit.
-What would you change in the world?
I don’t know where to start but if I could, I would like to see a definitive cure for cancer. And I would like historical memory to be more ingrained. -If you could ask a question to a great director from the past, who would you like to talk to and what would you ask them? Hitchcock without a doubt. I would just like to thank him for all the -pieces of cake ‖ he gave to cinema, because he showed the world how art can really be accessible and interesting without losing its value. This is often not the case.
-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?
I have no idea. But I do hope that in 100 years from now the human component will still be dominant in film and in all artistic and creative fields.
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