invited artists
The majority of artists will participate in the Symposium and Forum in-person, and hold Q&As about their work at the film screenings.
Nadia Ali is an Italian director and producer of Egyptian descent. She grew up in Milan and moved to the United States at a very young age.
Landed in New York, she struggled with immigration and adjusting to a new foreign reality. Her docu-series “Black Italians” displays the raw and unedited issues second generation Italians are faced with daily.
After moving to Los Angeles and witnessing the large spread of homelessness all over the city she decided to translate it in a film called “Forgotten in California.” She believes it is something heartbreaking that could happen to each and any one of us dealing with unfortunate circumstances and more should be done to help reduce this problem.
The atrocious injustices by the hands of the police and the tragedy of George Floyd’s murder lead her to the creation of the short film “La Mia Milano”. Reminiscing of the times she was a teenager and used to hang out at the park with her crew, the story is a nostalgic tale of Black Italian friends that are taunted and shaken by a vicious abuse of power.
Her journey has consistently been marked by a profound exploration of identity. Her work carries a significant social impact and aims to challenge inequality and discrimination.
Daphne Di Cinto is a Black Italian writer/director who started out her career as an actor. A graduate from New York’s Actor Studio Drama School, she has played Sarah Basset, the Duchess of Hastings in the acclaimed Netflix drama Bridgerton.
She made her directorial debut with The Moor- Il Moro, a drama based on the life of Alessandro de’ Medici, the first black man to become a head of state in modern Western Europe, namely, the Duke of Florence in 1530. The film was honored with the Cultured Focus Visionary in Film Award during the 79th Venice Film Festival, receiving her prize alongside veteran Oscar nominated director Evgeny Afineevsky.
Winner of Oscar Qualifying Reel Sisters Film Festival, The Moor – Il Moro also won the Best Short Film at Italian Black Movie Awards 2022,Reel Sisters Film Festival 2022, Madrid Film Awards 2022, IFF Bergamo 2022, Afrobrix FilmFestival 2022, Fabrique du Cinema Awards 2021.
Di Cinto is praised for her precise and conscious directorial style and for her ability to highlight the importance of roots and belonging through the lens of history. She has also received the Leader of Change in Creativity Award at the first edition of the Black Carpet Awards in Milan in February 2023.
With a point of view informed by her multiculturality (her background is Seychellois-Italian and she has lived in Rome, Paris, New York and London), she loves to tell stories about identity, migrations, historical memory and the female gaze.
Actress, producer, member of the Venezuelan Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences, and activist. Born in Venezuela from a family of workers and artists, she moved to Argentina to pursue acting career. She got her first significant acting role in Frontera Sur (1998) by Oscar-winning director Gerardo Herrero and in reknown theatrical productions in Buenos Aires.
Since 2006, she has been in Italy, participating in national Rai and Mediaset TV series. Among her latest performances is House of Gucci by Ridley Scott, where she acts alongside Lady Gaga, and Ignoti/ Uknown (2023) of Giuseppe Brigante for which she has won several awards as leading actress in Italy.
On stage, she performed in the play The Two Popes (2022) by Giancarlo Nicoletti, and The Trojans, the War and the Men. A necessary Re-vision (2022) directed by Marcela Serli. She appears in Everybody Loves Diamonds with Rupert Everett, produced by Wildside and Prime Video. In 2023, she debuted as both performer and director with the monologue “Wildfire”, life and work of American sculptor Edmonia Lewis.
In 2019, she created the “Italian Black Movie Awards” and in 2020 co-founded the association “Amleta” (Amnesty International Award for Art and Human Rights).
Kibout, an actress, author, and director, was born in France to Algerian parents. She is fluent in five languages. She began her career in theater, performing in the monologue “Lampedusa Beach”(2018) by Lina Prosa, “Il Dubbio” (2012) by J.P. Shanley, directed by Sergio Castellito, among various other theatrical productions. She later transitioned to working in television and film.
Kibout made her directorial debut with the short film “Le ali velate” (Veiled Wings, 2016)), which received 35 awards, thanks to the support of the Bologna Cineteca. She has appeared in numerous TV series, including “Nero a metà/ Half black” (2018) directed by Marco Pontecorvo, “Vita da Carlo/Life as Carlo”(2021) directed by Carlo Verdone, and “Monterossi”(2022) for Amazon.
Recently, she acted in the movie “L’afide e la formica/The Aphid and the Ant” (2021)by Mario Vitale, the feature film “Profeti/Prophets” (2023) directed by Alessio Cremonini, and she stars in two upcoming films: “Il mare nascosto/ The Hidden Sea”(2023) by Luca Calvetta, shot in Calabria, and “Sulla terra leggeri/Lightly on Earth”(2024) by Sara Fgaier.
Kibout is currently working on a new short film, “Bucce/ Peels” where she will serve as both director and actress, as well as an autobiographical documentary film “Radici/Roots,” exploring her roots in Italy and Algeria through her son’s eyes.
Born in Cameroon in 1958, Geneviève Makaping has lived in Italy since 1982. With a bachelor degree in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures and a PhD in Multimedia Didactic Technologies and Communication Systems from the University of Calabria, she worked as a journalist at a local television station, Metrosat TV, and she was the first black director of an Italian newspaper, La Provincia Cosentina.
Her first book, Traiettorie di sguardi. E se gli altri foste voi? (Rubbettino, 2001), is based on her own experiences as she travels up through Africa and eventually settles in Italy. A revised version of the book was published in 2022 (ed. by Simone Brioni, with an introduction by Caterina Romeo), and was translated into English in 2023 by Giovanna Bellesia Contuzzi and Victoria Offredi Poletto as Reversing the Gaze. What if the Other Were You.
Makaping is also the protagonist of the documentary Maka (2023, written by Simone Brioni and directed by Elia Moutamid), which offers a detailed account of Makaping’s perilous journey of migration from Cameroon across the desert and the ocean, her arrival in Italy in 1982 following the tragic death of her partner, her success as a journalist and television host, and her more recent relocation and current teaching job in Mantua.
Maka was presented and recognized at several international film festivals all over the world among which the Socially Relevant Film Festival in New York, the Festival del Cinema Africano d’Asia e d’America Latina, the Ottawa Black Film Festival, the Brno Film Festival, the Peloponnisos International Documentary Film Festival, the International Black and Diversity Film Festival in Toronto.
Makaping is currently an adjunct professor in French language and culture at the University of Mantua in Italy and has taught English at high school level since 2013.
Medhin Paolos is filmmaker, photographer, musician and social justice activist. Her work focuses on diaspora, citizenship rights, migration and queerness. For ten years Paolos was part of the folk-electronic band Fiamma Fumana bringing forward the female vocal tradition of the Mondine of Northern Italy and performed internationally at venues like Melkweg, Womex and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
Paolos is the co-founder of the Milan chapter of Rete G2-Seconde Generazioni, a national organization that promotes the human and civic rights of descendants of immigrants in Italy. In recent years, she has been awarded fellowships at Harvard University, MIT Institute of Technology and Wellesley College, where she conceptualized “Archives of Justice”, an educational platform for bringing a plurality of voices, histories, and cultures to the forefront through media and artistic interventions.
She was a Professor of the Practice at Tufts University before joining the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University in the Fall of ´23. She directed the Film documentary “Asmarina – Voices and Images of a Post-colonial Heritage” and is currently working on a new film production, “Land in between”.
Film director, screenwriter, film speaker and educator, Laila Petrone is an Italian/Dominican filmmaker. Raised between Italy and the United States, Laila received a B.A, in International Affairs (John Cabot University) and a Master in Communication & Media (University of Florence).
As a child of an actress, she spent most of her youth on Italian film sets. In 2007, she appeared as Pina in Spike Lee’s Miracle at St. Anna. The experience inspired her to pursue a career behind the camera. In the following years, she worked her way to becoming a 1st Assistant Director and Producer.
In 2014, Laila’s directorial debut Your Love premiered at Urban World Film Festival in NYC. The short was awarded “Best of Festival” at the Black Women Film Network Summit in Atlanta, and was selected to screen on Aspire TV as part of the ABFF Independent series’ short films program.
In 2019 she completed her second short film No me olvidaré de ti – I Will Not Forget You, conceived in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, which has been awarded “Inspirational Short Film” at Rincon International Film Festival in Puerto Rico.
Currently, Laila is working on a docu-series titled Mothers and Daughters. This project explores the stories of several Latina mothers and daughters born and/or raised in Italy. Laila’s work ranges in genre but always with a common desire to explore multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion.
Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Italian by adoption, Iris Peynado’s passion for acting ignited at the age of 14 when she joined the Theatre Company “Teatro Estudiantil,” marking her stage debut. At 18, she relocated from Santo Domingo to London to study theatre, and two years later, she moved to Rome, where her successful Italian career began in 1982.
Since then, Iris has collaborated with esteemed directors, actors, and producers in Italian cinema and television. She is particularly celebrated for her role in the iconic Italian film “Non Ci Resta Che Piangere,” directed by Oscar winners Roberto Benigni and Massimo Troisi.
Iris has spent much of her adult life dividing her time between Rome, Los Angeles, New York, and Santo Domingo. She has received numerous international awards for her contributions to the arts.
In addition to her acting career, Iris has been actively involved in cultural and social initiatives, playing a pivotal role in organizing major events that promote Dominican art and culture in Italy. Since 2016, she has served as the Vice-President of RO.SA.M, a Cultural Association based in Venice that promotes contemporary art.
Her film credits include Luigi Magni’s “State Buoni Se Potete,” “Attila Flagello Di Dio” with Diego Abatantuomo, “Senza Nessuna Pietà” with Pierfrancesco Favino, and David Maler’s “Todas Las Mujeres Son Iguales.” Her television work features “Wheel of Time,” “Don Matteo,” “Un Posto al Sole,” “Elisa di Rivombrosa,” “Baciami Strega,” “Cristoforo Colombo,” Festival de Sanremo, and “Bloopers and Practical Jokes,” a Dick Clark Production.
Marilena Umuhoza Delli is an Italian-Rwandan photographer, author, and director whose work has been featured globally by BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, VICE, Libération, Corriere della Sera, Le Monde, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, and the New York Times, among others. She has written five books about her experience as an Afro-descendant woman in Ital: Razzismo all’italiana- cronache di una spia mezzosangue (2016); Negretta: Baci Razzisti (2020); Pizza Mussolini (2023); Lettera di una madre Afrodiscendente alla scuola italiana (2023; Storia vera dell’Italia nera (2024). She also hosts a national radio program on Radio Radicale dedicated to Afro-descendant excellence, and writes for Vanity Fair.
She co-founded Italy’s first Black-owned Anti-Racism Academy and regularly conducts workshops throughout Italy, Brazil, the United States, and the United Kingdom. She holds a Master’s in Languages for International Communication and studied directing at UCLA. In 2020, she was named among the 50 women of the year by D-Repubblica, and in 2023, she was honored as Community Leader of Change at the Black Carpet Awards organized by Vogue and AFW.