Daniela Zanzotto
Director/Producer/Camera
Daniela Zanzotto joined Disruptive Element Films in 1997. She specialises in documentary film making as director, producer and camera woman. Born in the US, of French and Italian parents, she grew up in the UK where she currently lives.
Daniela completed her Masters degree in French History and Literature at the University of Rochester, USA. In the summer of 1996, with a few short courses in film making under her belt, she set off to Paris to make her first documentary IF THE WALLS COULD SPEAK. She completed in April 1998 and loved the process so much that she decided to take up filmmaking instead of returning to her PhD programme.
After doing a few community-based video projects, Daniela went on to make her second documentary KISSED BY ANGELS (10Â min, MiniDV transferred to 35mm) which won Best Documentary Short at the Cleveland International Film Festival (2002), and a Certificate of Merit at the Golden Gate Awards in San Francisco (2002). It was transmitted on the Sundance Channel in the US in 2003 and Channel 4 in the UK in November 2004.
BATTAGLIA, a 58 minute documentary, is Daniela's most recent production. It was two years in the making and was finished in October 2004. It premiered at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival and has been shown at many festivals internationally and won the Audience Award at Biografilm in Bologna in 2005. It is due to be aired on the prestigiuos ARTE France in JUly 2007.
In addition to the films, Daniela has been a contributor in two film related publications in 2005, "Holocaust and the Moving Image" and "Get Your Documentary Funded and Distributed." The former, published by Wallflower Press, is based on a five-day symposium held at the Imperial War Museum in London. Daniela was invited to show "If the Walls Could Speak" and to give a talk about the film and how she made it. She was then invited to contribute an essay based on her presentation. The latter is published by the established film organisation in the UK, Shooting People. Daniela was included in a group of international documentary film makers who were interviewed about various aspects of funding and making documentaries.
In November 2004 Daniela and her husband Paul Dungworth set up an arts cafe-bar on Columbia Road in East London called The FleaPit.
ZONED IN, 2008
Documentary, 90 mins
Produced, filmed and directed by Daniela Zanzotto
Synopsis
Over the course of nine years, director Daniela Zanzotto accompanies a young Black man, Daniel Nartey, on a path that takes him from an urban South Bronx public school to a serene and elite Ivy league University and back again as he discovers himself and his life’s purpose. It is a compelling tale of survival, ambition, achievement and disillusionment.
*NY Loves Film Award for Best Documentary, Tribeca Film Festival 2008
BATTAGLIA, 2004
Documentary, 58 min, DV Cam, in Italian w/English subtitles
Produced, filmed and directed by Daniela Zanzotto
Synopsis
A journey through the life of the extraordinary Sicilian photographer and anti-Mafia activist Letizia Battaglia. A story of passion, pain and the struggle for freedom.
A Disruptive Element Films production in association with YLE Teema (Finland), SVT (Sweden), TVO (Canada), ORF (Austria) with the support of Stocklight Limited and Studio of the North (Uk)
*Audience Award for Best FIlm, Biografilm Festival, Italy 2005
Festival screenings including:
Sheffiled International Documentary Festival, UK 2004
Full Frame Documentary Festival, USA 2005
Brooklyn International Film Festival, USA 2005
Ecofilms Festival, Greece 2005
Biografilm Festival, Italy 2005
Documentary in Europe Workshop, Italy 2005
Transmitted on:
YLE Teema, Finland (2005); SVT, Sweden (2004); ORF, Austria (2005); TVO, Canada (2005); AVRO, The Netherlands (2005); Cultnetwork, Fox Italy (2006); TSI Switzerland (2007); ARTE, France (2007).
Worlwide distribution by First Hand Films, Switzerland. North American DVD distribution by National Film Network.
KISSED BY ANGELS, 2001
Documentary, 10min, Mini DV transferred to 35mm Dolby SR, in English
Produced, filmed and directed by Daniela Zanzotto
Synopsis
Kissed by Angels is an intimate window on one woman's experience of breast cancer. Combining hyper-reality with surreality, this lyrical documentary features Caroline, 46, an actor and psychotherapist,who must confront a mastectomy and an uncertain future.
A Disruptive Element Films production in association with Yorkshire Arts, Yorkshire Media Production Agency, Stocklight Limited
*Best Documentary Short Film, Cleveland International Film Festival, 2002
*Certificate of Merit, Golden Gate Awards, San Francisco Int'l Film Festival, 2002
*Best edited short from the North, Kinofilm, Manchester, UK, 2002
Screened at over 25 festivals world wide, including:
Tampere International Short Film Festival 2002
Women in the Director's Chair, Chicago 2002
Hot Docs! International Documentary Festival, Toronto 2002
Flickerfest, Sydney 2003
Transmitted on:
Sundance Channel, USA , 2003; Channel 4, UK , 2004
IF THE WALLS COULD SPEAK, 1998
Documentary, 52 min, Mini DV, in French w/English subtitles
Produced, filmed and directed by DanielaZanzotto
Synopsis
Today La Muette is a run down council estate in Drancy, a Paris suburb: during WWII 67,000 Jews were interned there on their way to the death camps. This dynamic and contemporary film makes history and the past relevant to today in a style that goes well beyond the boundaries of conventional historical documentaries.
*Winner of the first prize in the "Out of that Darkness" Film Season and Competition, first time director category, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, July 2000.
*Winner of second place in the documentary category of the Festival Internazionale Cinema delle Donne, Torino, March 2000.
Festival screenings including:
Sheffield International Documentary Festival 1998
Rotterdam International Film Festival 1999
Multiple screenings at the Imperial War Museum, UK
Transmitted on:
Television Suisse Romande 2, Switzerland - March 2000
Planete (territiories in France, Germany, Belgium, North Africa) - May 2001
North American educational distribution by First Run Features/Icarus, USA.
