CHIARA CLEMENTE, Director/Producer
Chiara Clemente's work revolves around questions of identity and cultural contrast. Her love for film came at an early age with her first video camera at the age of 12. Her affinity for art can be traced back to her childhood, tiptoeing around her father's paintings. Thus, the merging of visual art and film was an entirely intuitive process for her when she directed her first art documentary for the Rai Sat Art Channel in Italy in 2000. With the success of the first
film she was invited to direct twelve more. Commissions included documentaries on contemporary artists and architects, including Jim Dine, Frank Gehry and Brice Marden. The documentaries evolved and soon she was collaborating with artists on short art films, such as These Imaginary Boys and Know Yourself with Adrian Tranquilli.
In 2002, Chiara directed and photographed Three Worlds: A Portrait of Francesco Clemente, which premiered on Rai Sat Art and won best new documentary at Corto Circuito in Naples. In 2005, Chiara worked with Richard Tuttle and Mario Sorrenti on a short film commissioned by W Magazine for national distribution with its first Art Issue. Also in 2005, Chiara began work on her first feature documentary, Our City Dreams. Over the course of two years, she followed five women artists: Nancy Spero, Marina Abromovic, Kiki Smith, Ghada Amer, and Swoon, all of whom live and work in NYC as well as around the world. Stylistically, the camera in the film is guided by the artist's perspective and becomes the window through which the viewer is drawn into the inner sphere of the artists' lives. The result is part documentary, part portrait, and part collaboration. After successful openings at Art Basel (where it opened the ArtFilm series), Locarno and Hamptons Film Festivals, Our City Dreams will open at Film Forum in early winter 2009 followed by a Sundance Channel premiere in spring 2009.
This fall, she will begin her third collaboration with Adrian Tranquilli. Chiara is currently completing a short film commissioned by Saatchi and Saatchi as well as working on adapting a book for the screen.
|
