Film Producer Federico Guarascio seeks to make the hidden apparent. His intuitive style of film production spans across both his art films and short documentaries, linking the human experience to a higher philosophical worldview. From his art film projects to his work as part of the Brooklyn Film Festival-winning team behind The Fourth Kingdom, Guarascio explores the diverse range of how individuals for communities in his nuanced practice. His vision pays off: this creative has multiple award-winning projects such as Only Simon Lee and Godka Cirka have netted attention at both the Cannes and Sundance Film festivals.
When creating The Fourth Kingdom, his award-winning project in tandem with a US-based team that made it to consideration for the 90th Academy Awards, Guarascio notes the careful attention paid to the film’s themes, ranging from immigration to poverty to human dignity. “A documentary of this kind deals with delicate issues, and it was therefore necessary to approach the characters and the reality of these lives, investigating the characters with sensitivity,” remarks Guarascio. “It is very rewarding to see that from this contemplative and observational approach, these characters just open up: revealing their stories and their lives. Our goal was to capture that poetic, emotional, and cinematic essence of this special place and its inhabitants. In that sense I can say that we are very proud of it.”
Guarascio isn’t afraid to push the envelope of contemporary film in his art filmmaking oeuvre. His film “Manananggal” – created in tandem with performing artist and photographer, Ventiko – explores the psychological space that artistic individuality inhabits. “I have always conceived artistic forms as a single interchangeable expression,” observes Guarascio, “so obviously on a conceptual level, there is no contradiction between cinema and art… using cinema as a means of projecting [an] artistic message to a wide spectrum of audiences [is] always [in my thoughts.]”
Guarascio exudes that sensitivity to subject matter and storyline that marks thought leaders of contemporary cinema: attuned to the transcendent subject matter of human nature while capturing the small gestures in the everyday that define our social experience.
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