Gillo Pontecorvo †
Gillo Pontecorvo was born in Pisa in 1919. After graduating in chemistry, he worked as a journalist. As a correspondent in Paris he immediately became involved in the cinema in Paris as assistant to Yves Allégret and Joris Ivens. Returning to Italy, he made a number of documentaries. His first full-length film was La grande strada azzurra (1957), which won a prize at the Karlovy Vary Festival. In 1959 he directed Kapò, a drama set in a Nazi death camp. His masterpiece is La battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers) which won the Leone d'Oro at Venice in 1966 and Nastro d'Argento 1967 a "political" film characterized by its strong emotional content, its technical skills and strong sense of ensemble. This was followed in 1969 by Queimada with Marlon Brando, which describes the horrors of colonialism and the revolt of the oppressed. Ogro in 1979 dealt with the theme of terrorism in the decline of Franco's regime. In 1993 he directed the 50th Festival, characterised by the International Authors Assembly and the founding of the World Union of Authors and the Permanent Secretariat of Authors, as the first step towards making Venice the world capital of cinema authors. He also directed the 1994 and 1995 International
Venice Film Festivals.
Gillo Pontecorvo died in fall 2006.