Draft:Vincenzo Cavallo

Vincenzo Cavallo (07 FEB 1980 –) also known as Dr. Farasi or Dr. Faras is an Italian multi awarded film producer and academic, director and screenwriter based in Kenya since 2007. He has established a reputation as an international storyteller and producer mostly focusing on African migration, music and urban stories.

He has received among other important awards and nominations the Golden Dhow and the Lumiere Award. Cavallo made his first three film documentaries on urban spaces, 24 Hours in East Naples (Italy), followed by Maskaniflani (Kenya) and Twende Berlin (Kenya/Germany), during the same period he co-directed the collective film Napoli 24 with many other Neapolitan authors among them Paolo Sorrentino (Italy).

In 2014 he directed a TV series on Afro-Colombian Music, Pasos de Cumbia, a co-production between RTVC Colombia and CNTV Chile and in 2015 he made his fictional directorial film debut with the thriller WAZI?FM (2015), a story about Somali urban refugees, for which he received best director at Zanzibar Film Festival, followed by the web series Connection House (2016), about illegal migrants in Italy, which received best director at Roma Web Fest and best comedy at Berlin Web Fest.

He wrote, co-directed and co-produced the VR film African Space Makers which premiered at Venice Biennale Film Festival and won two international awards making history as the first ever interactive African XR experience to receive such recognition.

In 2023 he released the feature film Bufis-Daydreamers, a crime drama currently on Netflix. Dr. Cavallo is also a media researcher with a Ph.D. in Communication and New Technologies who has been working for Oxford University and publishing for important academic journals.

Early life and education
Vincenzo Cavallo grew up in Naples where he developed his passion for theater and art. His theatrical tastes were greatly influenced by filmmakers such as Werner Herzog, Ettore Scola and Spike Lee. The movie Do the Right Thing (1989) greatly inspired him to create independent stories.

Early career
After working for one year at the UN/DESA on the programme i-Parliament he co-founded a Media NGO and then a production company, Cultural Video Production. During the same years he worked for different UN Agencies and NGOs on humanitarian, environmental and social documentaries.

In 2012 he co-founded TheNrbBus a space for art and culture and started to produce independent films, TV series and XR experiences.

Academic career
Dr. Cavallo began his Ph.D., in 2005 and was a lecturer at IULM MASPI .He was also accepted as a member of DEMO-net, a Network of Excellence funded under the European Commission's sixth framework programme: Information Society Technologies IST (FP6-2004-27219)

After earning his doctorate from IULM University in 2010, he returned to media activism and worked on the "African Cyberdemocracy" video documentary for RAI TV. The tale of the renowned i-HUB, the "Ushahidi" software, and the emergence of cyberdemocracy in Kenya.

In order to support the creation of the On-line Observatory on Migration Conflict-Net, which is currently hosted on the Oxford website, Dr. Cavallo began an official collaboration with a postdoctoral field researcher from the University of Oxford in 2019–2020. Together, they conducted research and gathered digital content and online sources.

In addition to being a devoted scholar, he has traveled the world giving important talks and serving as a trainer. In 2009 he published several articles and was a speaker at the International Conference, IST, Kampala, Uganda.

In 2021 he was a speaker at MIT Open Documentary Lab Spring Series XR African Ecosystem from an Economical, Cultural and Political Perspective. He soon collaborated with them on a research project focusing on Urban Story telling and XR in Africa five major cities, Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi, Accra and Dakar.

From 2018 to 2023, he worked as the trainer designer and coordinator for the "thenrbbus CANON Workshops Programme," a collaboration between Pwani University and Canon aimed at assisting the creative sector in East Africa. An educational project that involved organizing 22 workshops in Nairobi, 55 open laboratories, and a tour of five significant Kenyan counties. Urban Storytelling, Field Direction and Production, Photography Direction, Script Writing, Multi Camera Live Streaming Production, and How to Grow Kenya's Creative Sector by Forming Local Networks are among the subjects he has been teaching during the seminars.

Publication
Global Centre for Information and Communication Technologies in Parliament "Win Win eparticipation model," World e-Parliament 2008 contribution.

Conference Proceedings, Paul Cunningham and Miriam Cunningham (Eds). "Win Win eparticipation model," IST Africa Kampala Uganda, 6 May 2009.

Electronic Participation, Proceedings of Ongoing Research, Schriftenreihe Informatik, Band 31, 2009. "Win Win eparticipation model". Linz, Austria, August 31–September 4, 2009.

LNCS Journals, Academic Books & Online Media | Springer Electronic Participation First International Conference, epart 2009. "Win Win eparticipation model". Linz, Austria, August 31–September 4, 2009.

Goethe Institute Johannesburg, über(W)unden – Art in troubled times, "The Memory of the Crowd", Sam Hopkins and Vincenzo Cavallo, ed. 2012.

Igi Global Book, "Human Centered System design for E-Governance", edited by Saqib Saeed, M. Ayoub Khan, Rizwan Ahmad. Chapter "The eparticipation ecologies of Kenya", Vincenzo Cavallo, 2012.

Springer Book, User-Centric Technology Design for Nonprofit and Civic Engagements, Public Administration and Information Technology, Volume 9, 2014, pp 195 -218, Chapter title "eparticipaion Ecologies and the Rise of African Techno-Discourses": Methodological and Ethical Challenges in Understanding the Role of icts in Kenya, Cavallo 2014.

The journal of public space "Critical Narratives and Urban Co-Creation in Five Virtual Reality (VR) Productions", Vincenzo Cavallo Dec 31, 2022.

Filmography

 * The Baobab Whisperer (2024)
 * Bufis Daydreamers (2023)
 * Almost Somali (2022)
 * African Space Makers (2020)
 * Connection House (2016)
 * WAZI?FM (2015)
 * Pasos De Cumbia (2014)
 * Twende Berlin (2012)
 * Napoli 24 (2010)
 * Maskaniflani (2009)
 * 24 Hour in Est Naples (2006)

Awards
2009- Best film at the International Human Right Film Festival Naples for the musical documentary film 'Maskaniflani'.

2012- special award ASAV (African association of student of Verona) 32° Festival of Cinema Africano at the afrimix Film Festival with the musical documentary 'Twende Berlin'.

2012-Best TV series proposal CNTV (Chile) and Best co-production proposal RTVC (Colombia) with Pasos de Cumbia

2013-"4 Giornate di Napoli Festival". Best TV pilot script with Radio Yam

2015-The Golden Dhow-best film at the European African Festival Awards and the SIGNIS East African talent Award, at the Zanzibar Film Festival with the feature 'WAZI?FM'.

2016- Best director Roma WebFest

2017-Best Comedy Berlin WebFest

2018 and 2019 he was selected at Berlinale Film Festival as Talent producer and won the VFF award with Bufis film project

2020-best director at the Lumiere Awards

2021 -Impact Award at XR MUST With African Space Makers

Personal life
Marriage

He met his wife, Silvia Gioiello, in 2007 and got married in 2012.