Barbara Cupisti

{{BLP sources|date=July 2023}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Barbara Cupisti

| image = Barbara Cupisti, Director.jpg

| imagesize =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1962|01|24}}

| birth_place = Viareggio, Italy

| occupation = {{flatlist|

  • Actress
  • writer
  • director

}}

| years_active = 1982–present

| website =

| relations =

}}

Barbara Cupisti (24 January 1962) is an Italian director and actress. As a director, she focuses mainly on human rights documentaries.

Career as actress

Cupisti started her career as a dancer with the Luis Falcó company. In 1981, she enrolled at the Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico, which she left two years later to make her film debut in Tinto Brass' The Key.{{cite book |last1=Lancia |first1=Enrico |last2=Poppi |first2=Roberto |title=Le attrici: dal 1930 ai giorni nostri |date=2003 |publisher=Gremese Editore |isbn=978-88-8440-214-1 |chapter=Cupisti, Barbara}} In 1989, she was the lead actress in Carlo Verdone's Il bambino e il poliziotto. She also worked on television, notably in the series Châteauvallon, Edera and Caro maestro.

Career as director

Since 2002 she started to work as director for Rai Cinema. Her first documentary film Mothers premiered at the 64th Venice International Film Festival and won the David di Donatello for Best Documentary of the year.{{cite news |last1=Vivarelli |first1=Nick |title=‘Girl by the Lake’ tops David awards |url=https://variety.com/2008/film/awards/girl-by-the-lake-tops-david-awards-1117984287/ |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=Variety |date=19 April 2008}}

Her second documentary, Forbidden Childhood, was screened in the festival circuit and has received the Audience Award for the Best Documentary Film at the Bahrein International Human Rights Film Festival (May 2009) and the Amnesty International Cinema and Human Rights Award at the Pesaro International Film Festival for the New Cinema (June 2009), and at the Bobbio Film Festival of Marco Bellocchio. UNICEF Italia gave to this movie the High Patronage.

{{ill|Io sono - Storie di schiavitù|it}} (I am - Stories of slavery), her third film, is about human trafficking in Italy. It was presented at the 2011 Venice Film Festival with the patronage of Amnesty International Italy and was a finalist at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival.

Fratelli e Sorelle-storie di carcere is a two-episode documentary about the dramatic situation in Italian prisons. The film has been awarded with Premio Ilaria Alpi 2012, for the best documentary of the year and got the nomination for David di Donatello 2013.{{cite news |last1=Santoni |first1=Simona |title=David di Donatello 2013, tutte le candidature: Vicari e Tornatore in testa |url=https://www.panorama.it/lifestyle/david-donatello-2013-candidature |access-date=11 July 2024 |work=Panorama|date=10 May 2013 |language=it}}

Interferenze Rom 2013 was shot in the Republic of Macedonia, Italy, and France and talks about the Gipsy community in Europe.

Cupisti made a series of three documentaries about refugees from all over the word and the reasons for their exile, titled Exiles: The wars, Exiles: Tibet, and Exiles: The Environment.{{cite web |title=Exiles {{!}} Clipper Media |url=https://www.clippermedia.it/en/project/exiles |website=www.clippermedia.it |accessdate=4 November 2018}}

In 2016 Exiles: The wars wins the Special Nastro d'argento of the National Syndicate of Italian Film Journalists.

In 2018, Womanity is released. The film tells the story of thirty-six hours of four women in India, Egypt and the United States. It attended the Rome Film Festival and won at the Italian Film Festival in Madrid.

In 2020, My America was released and shown at the Turin Film Festival and broadcast on RAI TV

In 2022 and 2023, she filmed "Hotel Sarajevo" and "Wartime notes", the first reflecting on the 30th anniversary since the siege of Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia, and the latter on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and the role played by Ukrainian women.

Filmography

=Actress=

class="wikitable sortable"
Year

! Title

! Role

! class="unsortable" | Notes

1982

| The New York Ripper

| Heather

| Feature Film

1983

| The Key

| Lisa Rolfe

| Feature Film

rowspan="2"| 1985

| Châteauvallon

| Alexandra

| TV series, 26 episodes

International Airport

| L'hostess di terra

| TV series, 3 episodes

rowspan="3"| 1987

| Stage Fright

| Alicia

| Feature Film

Eleven Days, Eleven Nights

| Alicia

| Feature Film

Opera

| Signora Albertini

| Feature Film

rowspan="1"| 1988

| Piazza Navona

|

| TV series, 1 Episode: O Samba

rowspan="5"| 1989

| The Hell's Gate

| Erna

| Feature Film

La salle de bain

| Doctor's Wife

| Feature Film

The Church

| Lisa

| Feature Film

Il bambino e il poliziotto

| Lucia

| Feature Film

Dark Bar

| Elisabeth

| Feature Film

rowspan="4"| 1990

| Flight from Paradise

| Assessino

| Feature Film

Formula I

|

| TV series

Il volo di Teo

|

| Feature Film

Eyewitness

| Elisa

| TV movie

rowspan="2"| 1992

| Edera

| Dalma

| TV series, 21 episodes

Flesh and the Devil

| Maria Cristina

| TV movie

rowspan="2"| 1994

| Cemetery Man

| Magda

| Feature Film

Only You

| Anna

| Feature Film

1995

| L'anno prossimo... vado a letto alle dieci

| Betty

| Feature Film

rowspan="2"| 1997

| The Grey Zone

|

| Feature Film

Commercial Break

| Mary Cantucci

| Feature Film

rowspan="2"| 1999

| Gialloparma

| Cristina

| Feature Film

Not Registered

|

| Feature Film

2000

| Denti

| Segretaria Dott Calandra

| Feature Film

2001–02

| Distretto di Polizia

| Irene Martini

| TV series, 2 Episode: La vendetta, Doppio inganno

rowspan="2"| 2002

| Total Kheops

| Paola

| Feature Film

Sotto gli occhi di tutti

| Barbara

| Feature Film

=Director=

class="wikitable sortable"

!Year

!Title

!Notes

2002

| The Water Mask

| Feature Film, Segment: Cornice

2007

| Mothers

| Documentary

2008

| Forbidden Childhood

| Documentary

2011

| Io Sono

| Documentary

2012

| Storie di carcere

| Documentary

2013

| Interferenze Rom

| Documentary

2014

| Exiles. The Wars

| Documentary

2015

| Exiles. Tibet

| Documentary

2016

| Exiles. The environment

| Documentary

2018

| Womanity

| Documentary

2020

|My America

| Documentary

2022

|Hotel Sarajevo

| Documentary

2023

| Wartime Notes

| Documentary

References

{{reflist}}