Ottavio Mario Mai

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Ottavio Mario Mai

original title:

Ottavio Mario Mai

cinematography:

country:

Italy

year:

2002

film run:

63'

format:

Betacam SP - colour

sound:

Stereo

status:

Ready (21/10/2002)

festivals & awards:

Life, art, political and entrepreneurial activities were the driving forces behind the figure of Ottavio Mario Mai, just as they are in the post-modern society which Mai seemed to intuitively predict. Mai was one of the first to understand and use the potential of these various facets. The main period of Ottavio Mai’s work stretches from 1980 to his death in 1992, when the worlds of entertainment and communication really started to take off.

«Ottavio Mai understood that if homosexuality wasn’t represented in entertainment and the media, it should start to become so, because that representation is basically indispensable, it is the only sign, the only proof of existence. And so he took it upon himself to fill that gap. His films were a mixture of documentary and traditional drama, poetic shorts and experimental films. They featured gays, transvestites, couples, families, betrayals, “every day homosexual life”, all shown in a direct and uncompromising way. They weren’t big budget films and they often deliberately used new electronic methods, but they crossed the genres and covered the subject matter in a way that no one had dared to do before in Italy» (A. Golinelli, G. Minerba).

Starring: Ada Di Benedetto, Leo Gullotta, Leonardo Treviglio, Enza Fantini, Antonio Congedo, Salvatore Botrugno, Mario Saroldi, Costantino Toma, Tiziano Cosi, Anna Chimienti, Gabriele Dil Dell’A-iera, Damiano Andresano, Cosimo Santoro and Salvatore Faulisi.
Contributions from: Alberto Barbera, Fabio Bo, Gianni Rondolino, Raffaella De Vita, Angelo Pezzana, Gianni Vattimo, Marziano Marzano, Laura Righi, Raul Ivaldi, Donatella Olocco, Mirco Biscaro, Stella Capogreco, Ivana Cisero, Marco Silombria and Piero Valetto.