Curriculum

FEDERICO SINISCALCO
CURRICULUM VITAE
Federico Siniscalco, born in Naples, Italy, holds degrees in American Literature from the
University of Florence and the George Washington University. Currently he is a
professor of American Studies at the University of Siena in Arezzo, Italy. In his work on
American Culture and on intercultural communication, he uses documentary film both as
a source of information, by researching and studying significant non-fiction films, and as
a tool through which to represent various aspects of both American and Italian history
and culture.
Siniscalco is the founder and director of DavID (Digital audio visual Intercultural
Documentation). This research laboratory, active within the University of Siena since
2004, is dedicated to the production, subtitling and archiving of documentary films and
videos. Among the audiovisual material subtitled into Italian and archived by DavID are
significant American documentary films such as the Maysles brother’s Salesman, Gimme
Shelter, and Grey Gardens, Pennebaker’s Dont Look Back, Bob Drew’s Primary,
Adventure’s on the New Frontier, and Crisis, and Les Blank’s Innocents Abroad.
From 2001 Siniscalco has been a member of the scientific committee of the Festival dei
Popoli (International Documentary Film Festival in Florence, Italy), where he has also
taught classes on the history of Documentary film. For the Festival, Siniscalco
coordinated two special events which saw the participation of filmmakers Albert Maysles
(in 2001) and D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus (in 2004).
In 2006 Siniscalco organized a tribute to American Direct Cinema for Engagé
Documentary Film Festival in Cortona, Italy. Within this event was a round table on
Observational documentary in the digital age, which saw the participation, among others,
of documentary filmmakers Ricky Leacock and Bob Drew.
Siniscalco has directed and co-directed non-fictional films which deal with such themes
as the critical reception of Antonio Gramsci, American Direct Cinema, Italian Americans,
and the presence of American students in Italy. Currently he is working on a
documentary on two Italian African American brothers coming to terms with their mixed
cultural heritage.
Presently Siniscalco is developing a collaborative project with the University of
Rochester and the DavID laboratory to optimize the use of digital audiovisual media in
the humanities and in education in general. More specifically the project, entitled
“Imaging Italy”, aims to produce digital images of the Italian cultural patrimony which
will be elaborated and made available through the most recent e-learning and virtual
reality technology.
C.V. FEDERICO SINISCALCO
Siniscalco is a member of the following professional organizations: Associazione Italiana
di Studi Americani; International Visual Sociology Association; European Documentary
Association; Associazione Documentaristi Italiani; Documentaristi Anonimi Toscani.
Works by Federico Siniscalco
•
Siniscalco, Federico. “Getting to know the Aretini”. Getting to Know Arezzo. Eds.
Suzette Grillot and Zachariah Messitte. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press
[in print]
•
Siniscalco, Federico. “Il Direct Cinema e la rappresentazione della realtà: appunti
sulla scrittura audiovisiva”. Non solo storia. Saggi per Camillo Brezzi. Eds.
Massimo Baioni and Patrizia Gabrielli. Cesena: Società editrice “Il Ponte
Vecchio”, 2012: 217-224.
•
Siniscalco, Federico. "Pieces of Someday. A Memoir by Jan Vallone". Italian
Americana 29.2 (2011): 234-5.
•
Siniscalco, Federico. “Albert Maysles”. New York Documentary Film Festival
Catalogue. Firenze: Festival dei Popoli, 2009: 8-9.
•
Siniscalco, Federico. Touring for Roots: Italian American Voyages to Italy in the
Age of Global Travel. Video documentary. Arezzo: DavID productions, 2007:
14’.
•
Siniscalco, Federico. “Prisoners Among Us. Italian American Identity and World
War II, a film by Michel Angelo DiLauro”. Italian Americana 24.1 (2006): 125126.
•
Siniscalco, Federico and Varesco, Fabrizo. Direct Cinema: l’arte del
documentario. Video documentary. Ravenna: Direct Film, 2006: 60’.
•
Siniscalco, Federico. “Il ‘Direct Cinema’ statunitense”. Catalogo Engagé
Documentary: Festival del documentario civile. Cortona, 2006: 52-55.
•
Siniscalco, Federico. “In the "Old Country": Memories to Pass On”.
Ambassadors: American Studies in a Changing World. Eds. Massimo Bacigalupo
and Gregory Dowling. Rapallo: Busco, 2006: 35-48.
•
Siniscalco, Federico. “From Glory to Destruction: John Huston's Non-fictional
Depictions of War”. RSA Journal 13 (2004): 5-19.
C.V. FEDERICO SINISCALCO
•
Siniscalco, Federico. “Harvey Swados”. Voci dagli Stati Uniti. Prosa & poesia &
teatro del secondo Novecento. Eds. Valerio Massimo DeAngelis and Caterina
Ricciardi. Roma: Università di Roma La Sapienza, 2004: 87-93.
•
Siniscalco, Federico. Ricordi lontani: l'immigrazione italiana a Fredonia, NY.
Video documentary. Ravenna: Varesco Produzioni, 2003: 15’.
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Siniscalco, Federico and Varesco, Fabrizio. "Quando Italia faccio come italiani".
Studenti americani ad Urbino. Video documentary. Ravenna: Varesco
Produzioni, 2003: 37’
•
Siniscalco, Federico. “The City: An Appeal for Suburbia in the Mid-Thirties”.
America Today: Highways and Labyrinths. Ed. Gigliola Nocera. Siracusa: Grafià
Editrice, 2003: 541-548.
•
Siniscalco, Federico. “Video-interviews: Italian-American Study-Abroad Students
in Florence”. America and the Mediterranean. Eds. Massimo Bacigalupo and
Pierangelo Castagneto. Torino: Otto Editore, 2003: 179-186.
•
Siniscalco, Federico. “Albert Maysles e il cinema documentario”. 42º Festival
dei Popoli Catalogue. Firenze: Festival dei Popoli, 2001: 72-73.
•
Siniscalco, Federico. Italian-American Students in Florence. Video documentary.
Roma: Aldo Cimaglia produzioni, 2003: 10’.
•
Siniscalco, Federico and Varesco, Fabrizio. L'arte del documentario secondo
Albert Maysles. Video documentary. Ravenna: Varesco Produzioni, 2001: 35’.
•
Siniscalco, Federico. “Cultural Studies in Italy.” "Philosophical Studies",
"Cultural Studies", "Historical Studies": Curricula and Disciplines in the
Humanities. Ed. Loredana Polezzi. Urbino: Immaginare l’Europa edizioni, 1999:
111-122.
•
Siniscalco, Federico. Experiencing a Different Culture. Video documentary.
Ravenna: Varesco Produzioni, 1997: 15’
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Siniscalco, Federico. “La critica marxista nelle università americane”. Il confronto
letterario 27 (1997): 365-374.
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Siniscalco, Federico. “La presenza del testo nell'insegnamento della letteratura in
America”. Introduction to Marshall Walker, La letteratura degli Stati Uniti.
Palermo: Sellerio, 1997: 9-16.
•
Siniscalco, Federico and Baratta, Giorgio, New York and the Mystery of Naples.
Video documentary. Urbino: Le rose e i quaderni productions, 1993: 60’
C.V. FEDERICO SINISCALCO
•
Siniscalco, Federico. Introduction to Oscar Wilde, The Remarkable Rocket - Il
Razzo. Schio: Guido Tamoni Editore, 1993, 5-8.
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Siniscalco, Federico. “Fredric Jamenson e il dibattito modernismopostmodernismo negli U.S.A”. Malavoglia 8 (1992): 18-20.
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Siniscalco, Federico. “La parola e il tratto: Wilde, Beardsley e la Salomé”.
Introduction to Oscar Wilde, Salomé. Schio: Guido Tamoni Editore, 1988, 3-5.
•
Siniscalco, Federico. “La ‘terra degli illuminati’”. End note to Rudyard Kipling,
L’uomo che volle essere Re. Palermo: Sellerio Editore, 1986: 67-74.
Translations by Federico Siniscalco
•
Walker, Marshall. La letteratura degli Stati Uniti. Palermo: Sellerio Editore,
1997, 456p.
•
Kipling, Rudyard. L’uomo che volle essere Re. Palermo: Sellerio Editore, 1986,
74p.