Quick Facts
Biography
Vincenzo Cavallo (also known as Dr. Farasi or Dr. Faras in East Africa) (born 1980, Naples) is the Italian director of an awarded feature film, a television series, a web series and more than fifty documentaries on social, political, cultural and humanitarian issues and the founder of the Nairobi BUS.
Education and career
Since 2007, he has been working in Africa and Latin America producing and directing video projects and communication campaigns for United Nations (UN) agencies, such as United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Cavallo obtained a Ph.D. in Communication and New Technologies in 2010 at IULM after working for the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and co-founding Cultural Video Foundationand Cultural Video Production.
In 2007, he produced, wrote and directed "Maskaniflani", a participatory documentary about urban art and public space in Kenya with the support of the Kenyan music group Ukooflani and the Goethe-Institut Nairobi.
In 2012, he directed one episode of the collective film documentary Napoli 24. 24 different stories of the city of Naples made by 24 different directors. Produced by Indigo Film, Ananas, Skydancers, Teatri Uniti, in collaboration with Rai Cinema. Distribution Istituto Luce.
In 2013, he produced, wrote and directed Pasos de Cumbia, a 12 episode television series on Afro-Colombian music that won the CNTV (Chile) award and the co-production award of RTVC (Colombia).
His first feature film WAZI?FM received among other awards the Golden Dhow at the 18th edition of the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) in 2015. The film showcases the best Kenyan actors/actresses among them Nairobi Half Life star Joseph Wairimu, House of Lungula's Lizz Njagah, and Rugged Priest's Ojiambo Ainea.
In 2016, he directed his first web series Connection House, which received an award at Roma Web Fest 2016 for best direction and was nominated at the Berlin Web Fest 2016.
Filmography
Publications
- Über(w)unden: Art in Troubled Times
- Kenya e-Participation Ecologies and the Theory of Games
- African Techno Discourses