Nicola Scafidi. Film sets in Sicily
Photo exhibition curated by Angela Scafidi
The exhibition, through the curious and attentive gaze of Nicola Scafidi, photojournalist and collaborator of the Palermo newspaper “L’Ora”, he reports moments of the life of the workers and actors involved in the making of films that have entered the history of cinema: from “The Leopard” by Luchino Visconti to the trilogy of Italian mysteries by Francesco Rosi (“Salvatore Giuliano”, “Il Caso Mattei”, “Lucky Luciano”); from “Viva L’Italia” by Roberto Rossellini to “Il Viaggio” by Vittorio De Sica, from “Vulcano” by William Dieterle to “The Tales of Canterbury” by Pierpaolo Pasolini”; from “Day of the Owl” by Damiano Damiani al “Mafioso” by Alberto Lattuada.
BIO
Nicola Scafidi was born in Palermo in 1925. He began frequenting his father’s studio from an early age. He fell in love with photography and learned to work in the darkroom there. In 1943 he began his reportages, the photographs on the landing of the Americans in Sicily, on banditry and separatism are famous. He collaborated for decades with all Italian and also foreign newspapers, such as Der Spiegel, Time, La Pravda, New York Times, which they published his photographs, even on the cover. In 1968 he received the national award for best photojournalist in Milan. He was the set photographer for the directors Rossellini, De Sica and Visconti in their respective films “Viva l’Italia”, “Il Viaggio” and “Il Gattopardo”. In 2008, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage gave him a special mention, naming an area of the “Museum of Memory” in his name in Santa Margherita Belice. In 2014 the Federico II Foundation dedicated an exhibition to him and published a book that collects images from the set of the film “The Leopard”. Finally, in May 2015, the Municipality of Palermo named an exhibition space in his name in Villa Niscemi, the representative seat of the Administration.