Black Italy in Film - A Screening and Conversation with Filmmakers Antonio Dikele Distefano & Fred Kuwornu
Filmmakers Antonio Dikele Distefano and Fred Kuwornu visit UC San Diego on the heels of the recent release of Antonio's film "Autumn Beat" (2022).
“Autumn Beat” produced by Amazon Studios and co-produced by Indiana Productions is an exciting and unprecedented story about Black culture in Italy, and the role of music as a means of redemption and search for identity. Two brothers, Tito and Paco have the same dream: to break into the rap music world. Paco is a born performer and Tito knows how to write like no other but ambition, life, and love for the same woman will test their bond.
The film, which spans three-decades, has a cast mostly made up of Italian of African descent comprising Hamed Seydou, Abby 6ix, Geneme, Juliet Joseph, Dylan Magon, Mohamed Diallo, Marco Renna, Mamy Seny Gueye, Francesco Danquah, and Mafoku Michelle Cloe Kengne, and Italian hip-hop stars: Gué Pequeno, Ernia and Sfera Ebbasta. Nicole Morganti, head of Italian Originals at Amazon Studios, said: “This is an exciting and unprecedented story about black culture in Italy, and the role of music as a means of redemption and search for identity.”
RSVP by Feb 3 by visiting http://bit.ly/blackeurope
Wednesday, February 8, 2023 | 4:00 PM (PST)
Structural & Materials Engineering (SME) Bldg
Informal Talk - 4:00PM (Level 2 Patio)
Patio Reception - 5:00PM
Film Screening - 6:00PM (Room 149) (running time: 1 hour and 40 minutes)
Event Details
Cosponsored by the Black Studies Project and European Studies as a part of the Black Europe Series, with additional sponsorship from the Suraj Israni Center for Cinematic Arts.
About Antonio Dikele Distefano
In a bid to increase black representation in new Italian cinema, well-known Italian author turned screenwriter Antonio Dikele Distefano made his worldwide debut on Netflix Italia in 2021 with the groundbreaking mini-series, "Zero," featuring a primarily black cast.
The story is focused on life for Black Italian youth and their plight as members of an invisible class of society. But when a young Black teen called Zero discovers he can literally make himself invisible, he uses his gift to fight rich and powerful forces attempting to gentrify his neighborhood.
The historic nature of the series is even more remarkable given there are so few leading Black characters in Italian film, and the entertainment industry is creating quite a buzz about the first Black Italian film director backed by a major studio in Italy.
The 30-year-old multi-hyphenate creator hails from Angolan parents, was born and raised in the Northern Italian city of Ravenna, and now lives and works in Milan.
Before connecting with Amazon Italy and Netflix Italia, Antonio had already become an inspiration to many Black Italians through publishing, television, and social media projects.
He went on to write five novels for Mondadori between 2014 and 2019, with combined sales exceeding 500,000 copies sold.
Along the way, he founded Esse Magazine in 2016 as an outlet for young Black artists to gain recognition and did video interviews with emerging performers. Today, Esse is the largest rap publication in Italy. In addition, he owns the communications agency Cantera.
His first foray into screenplays netted the newly released "Zero" Netflix Italia mini-series, which launched him onto the world stage.
About Fred Kudjo Kuwornu
Fred Kudjo Kuwornu is an Italian-Ghanaian multi-hyphenate filmmaker, activist, educator, and producer, born and raised in Italy and based in New York where he founded his company production Do The Right Films. He is best known as the director of critically acclaimed documentaries such as Blaxploitalian, Inside Buffalo, and 18 IUS SOLI. His documentaries deal with political and social themes, such as racism, interracial relations, diversity, Afro-Italians, and Black diasporic identity in Italy and the African diaspora in the world. Fred Kuwornu holds a Master of Arts in Political Science at the University of Bologna, Italy with a focus on sociology and mass communication studies. In July 2021, He launched the platform BlackItalia.info and "Teaching Black Itay" a one-week refresher online course for professors which explores the contemporary presence of the African diaspora in Italy.
Kuwornu is a Diversity & Inclusion consultant for Netflix Italy and other media broadcasters in Italy. He has taught courses and labs at Colorado College, the University of Minneapolis, and Middlebury College Italian Summer School, and lectured at more than 200 Colleges in North America. His production has been awarded and granted by the New York Foundation for the Arts, Open Society, and Cineteca of Bologna. He is currently developing "We Were There," a feature documentary about the African presence during the Renaissance in Europe.
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