Stefano Casertano is a film director, producer, screenwriter and author residing in Berlin, Germany and Rome, Italy. Casertano heads the film company "Daring House".
Casertano co-produced the film The Mafia Is No Longer What It Used to Be by Franco Maresco, awarded a "Silver Lion" as Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival - La Biennale di Venezia in 2019. He directed the narrative VR film "Tales of the march", selected by the 80. Venice Film Festival for the "Venice Immersive" section in 2023.
He has been nominated "Italian Leader" by the Council for the United States and Italy and "Junior Fellow" by the Aspen Institute, and is an alumn of the Venice Biennale College for Virtual Reality.
Film career
While working in various film productions in Rome, Italy, Casertano completed a B.A. and M.A. in Economics and Business from Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli of Rome, and later an MBA from Columbia University in New York. In 2011 he earned a Ph.D. magna cum laude at the University of Potsdam in politics and held an adjunct professor position at the same university. In 2013, he spent a semester as Visiting Scholar at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs, at the Middle-East Institute. His Columbia works have been mentioned by researchers in Harvard and by the World Health Organization.
In 2011 Casertano founded the movie company "Daring House" in Berlin, Germany, to concentrate on the production of documentary films. His 2016 docufiction "People of Love and Rage" ("Gente di amore e Rabbia") won the DocFeed Film Festival in Eindhoven, received the Special Mention of the Jury at the Rome Independent Film Festival and has been selected by the Venice Film Week and the Broadway International Film Festival. The production "The Ballad of the Homeless" by Monica Manganelli screened at Cannes Film Festival and has been awarded, among the others, a "Nastro d'Argento" prize in Italy, and won the "LA Short Fest", an Academy Awards Qualifier.
In 2021, his VR project "Tales of the March" was selected by the Venice Biennale for the development program "Biennale College VR" and was granted support by the Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg. Shooting started in March 2023 and the film was later selected by the "Venice Immersive" section of the 80. Venice Film Festival.
His film "The Poet who would be King" ("Il Poeta che volle farsi Re"), dedicated to poet Gabriele d'Annunzio and his "Impresa di Fiume", has been produced by Cinecittà - Luce and by Fondazione Vittoriale degli Italiani, starrring historian Giordano Bruno Guerri and art-critic Vittorio Sgarbi. The film has been presented at Vittoriale for the 100th anniversary of d'Annunzio's ill-fated endeavour.
In 2022, film company Titanus announced the production of Casertano's fiction film "La Guerra di Elena". The film has been granted a selective contribution by the Italian Culture Ministry.
Journalism
Casertano contributes as a columnist to the Italian newspaper "Milano Finanza" and is a regular guest at TV-show "A Fondo" on the German international broadcaster "Deutsche Welle", covering topics of international politics and economics.
His articles are syndicated on Project Syndicate and on RealClearWorld.
Filmography
"La Guerra di Elena" ("Elena at War"), 2024, fiction, 110' - Director and co-producer - in production "Tales of the March", 2023, immersive short, 12' - Producer and director - in production "American Ring", 2022, Documentary, colour, 80' - Producer and director "The Poet who would be King" ("Il Poeta che volle farsi Re"), 2022, Documentary, colour, 85' - Producer and director "The mafia is no Longer what it used to be" ("La mafian non è più quella di una volta") by Franco Maresco, 2019, Documentary, colour, 105' - Co-producer "People of Love and Rage", 2016, Docufiction, B/W, 88' - Writer and Director "The Ballad of the Homeless" by Monica Manganelli, 2015, Animation, colour, 12' - Executive Producer "There Was Once a Sea", 2015, Documentary, colour, 84' - Writer and Director "The Last Days of Tacheles", 2014, Documentary, colour, 93' - Writer and Director
Books (non-fiction) Casertano, Stefano (2023), La Terza Rivoluzione Digitale. Baldini + Castoldi (forthcoming) Casertano, Stefano (2012), Germania Copia & Incolla. goWare. EPUB Casertano, Stefano; Ruffo, Pietro (2011), L'enfer c'est les autres: Exposition du 25 mars au 28 mai 2011. Communic Art. Casertano, Stefano (2011), La Guerra del Clima. Francesco Brioschi Editore. Casertano, Stefano (2009), Sfida all'Ultimo Barile. Francesco Brioschi Editore.