team: Fabrizio De Bartolomei - Rosalba Bimonte - Francesco Capodanno
Fabrizio De Bartolomei
since he was a young boy, he used to travel through Italy and Europe looking for a comparison with other reality and culture. Whenever he could, he choose the hitch-hiking way to move in order to meet the most variety of people he could.
He concluded his studies career at the University of Law (Giurisprudenza) in Teramo and worked for one year, as a conscientious objector at the military army service, at the ‘A.N.F.F.A.S.’ (Association of handicapped children families). Actually done by accident, that work resulted to be a very important experience to him.
At the same time he studied and got the certificate at the Artistic High School in Pescara; then, involved into anthropological and mass media studies, he moved to Rome and matriculated at the University of Sociology. At this time he also started to get interested into video-making, photography and anthropological reportage.
His first long trip: one year traveling through Central America from the North of Mexico to Nicaragua. During this ‘mystic voyage’ he followed the path of shamans and witch doctors from New Mexico and Sierra, medicine men from plateaus, descendents of pirates in Honduras' islands and ethnic groups from Mosquitia (eastern part of Honduras and Nicaragua).
Back to Italy he wished to be able to communicate his experiences, and he thought his way could be through photographic and video-making media.
He moved to Napoli and, thanks to accidental events, he fraternized with photographers and video makers engaged in different areas, he finally deeply explored his interest about photography and videos.
He travel through India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
During this one year travel he made experiences which signed deeply his soul and sensibility and moved his photographic interest in the direction of one-shot feeling.
Weaving between visible and invisible the image becomes a pretest, a starting point toward a deeper and critical analysis on our entourage and ourselves.
In Italy, in collaboration with some charity and humanity associations, he held photographic exhibitions and video shows in Genova, Roma and Pescara.
His main aim has been to show both the Indian daily-life and cultural, religious and artistic traditions such as the ‘Kathakali dance’ through the pictures they shot and a short-documentary.
As a result of daily traveling experience and inner confusion, he also wrote a book called ‘Betel signs. A one year travel through India, Bangladesh and Nepal’ (printing in progress).
In a new travel through the Far East (South Korea, China and Mongolia), he produced, in collaboration with the performer ‘Globster’, two videos: ‘Metropolitan duet’ a short-docu-fiction set in Seoul (it got the "Special jury mention" at the Mestre Film Festival), and a musical-documentary on nomadic Mongolian people, called ‘Ger to ger. From the city to the steppe’ (which also won the "Special jury mention" at the ‘Genova Film Festival ).
In 2005 and 2006 he follows the trail of several ethnic groups and hill tribes on the Central Highlands of Vietnam and Laos; there, he made a video-photographic research concerning the destiny of these people who are in pain since the American War and who are now at the bottom of society with very low preservation of human rights.
In 2006 he moves to Genova, he runs video workshops in several schools 'Leggere la televisione (Reading the Tv)' and cooperates with ‘Ma.G.Ma.’, a cultural Association, and ‘OndeVideo’, a video study, both involved in video documentation.
As a result of the last travel in South East he produced a photographic work set in a Vietnamese village, ‘Muiné, like in a dream’ and a video-documentary about the idea of "wellbeing" comparing the western lifestyle with the images of a little fisherman’s village in the south of Vietnam,‘The eye is larger than the belly’.
He starts to get involved in School Laboratory about audio-visual in Genova, Roma, Pescara.
Finally, in collaboration with Rosalba Bimonte, he's just finished the first volume of a video project about extra European cooking cultures (Asia, Africa, South America) presented by native people living now in Genova: ‘The compass of tastes - South Korea’ and ‘The compass of tastes - Senegal’ .
He creates ‘Visualdrome’, an ‘open project’.
In Paris he meat the 'Atelier du Non-Faire, an art studio inside the Menthal Hospital 'Maison Blanche' and discover his interest in the situation of menthal health in Italy and Europe; than he produce a photographic work 'Inclure' and a documentary 'The second occasion'.
He finsh a documentary about Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam and Laos 'Minor Portraits - Ritratti Minori'.
He partecipates to the activity of a Cultural Association 'SINESTESIS' organising in Genova a filmfestival about the relation between people and enviromnemt and a 24hours video competion.
Now he lives in Palermo (Sicilia) working in a docu-fiction project based on self-representational narratives ('AltroLab'Project – http://www.visualdrome.net/altrolab/index.html).