Fred Kudjo Kuwornu

He was born on 6 September 1971 in Bologna, Italy to a Ghanaian father and an Italian mother.[4] His father Perviss Kuwornu is from a village in Volta Region, Ghana, who arrived Italy in 1965 to study medicine.[5] His father specialized in cardiac surgery and general medicine and later graduated from university. His mother Alessandra Giacomelli is from Bologna when they met in 1969. Kuwornu grew up in Bologna in his mother's home and then moved to Ghana, Ferrara, Rome. Then he moved to USA and since 2013 He lives in New York.[6]

His father is a Protestant and mother is a Sephardic Jewish.[5] He practices Buddhism Soka Gakkai Japanese school.[6]

After high school in Italy and USA, he obtained a degree in political science and mass media, from the University of Bologna.[5] He started to work as a DJ artist for 15 years for various radios, such as "Radio Bologna International" and "Radio Jam FM". During this period, he worked as a radio host for private radios such as 'Emilia' and 'Veneto'. Then he moved to Rome and conducted the TV program Zengi telecast on La7 in 2001 to 2002. He also became an actor with the television serial Un papà quasi perfetto directed by Maurizio dell’Orso.[4] He also worked as television writer for Rai Italia for a TV travel program called Italia Che vai .[6]

In 2003, he directs his maiden short film, Natale in Autogrill The film became a finalist at the Festival dei Due Mondi of Spoleto as well. In 2008, he quit from television to pursue a career in filmmaking.[4] In 2008, he started film career as a production assistant on the set of the film Miracle at St. Anna directed by Spike Lee. It is based on the Nazi massacre in St. Anna di Stazzema, Italy. After that experience, he made his own documentary, Inside Buffalo in 2010 about the Afro-American soldiers who helped liberate Italy from the Nazis. The film received critical acclaim and later won the award for Best Documentary at the Black International Cinema Berlin festival. Meanwhile, the film was highly praised by former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Giorgio Napolitano.[6]

In 2012, he made his second documentary 18 IUS SOLI while becoming a civil right activist. The film deals with multiculturalism in Italy and the immigrants born and raised in Italy but are not yet Italian citizens.[7] The film later become one of the first documentaries for social change produced and distributed in Italy which later won the 2012 Ilaria Alpi prize. Between 2012 and 2106, the film was shown in Italy more than 800 times and screened at various film festivals.[4]

In 2013, he moved to USA and founded his own production company, Do the Right Films established in Brooklyn. With the success of the film, he made his third documentary Blaxploitalian in 2016. With the film, he brought African descent actors in Italian cinema. It was also screened at several international film festivals and received critical acclaim. Meanwhile, he developed the web series BLAQ • IT or so-called 'The Black Italians Timeline' in 2020.[5] It became a trend and as part of the new philosophy "Blaq Stars," dedicated to celebrate the Black Diaspora in the world. In September 2020 Netflix chose Fred to do the Italian voiceover for Karamo Brown in the episode "I am perfectly designed" of series Bookmarks- Celebrating Black Voices.[4]

• Films about immigration to Italy

• Fred Kudjo Kuwornu at IMDb
• Counter-memory and representations of otherness: Three documentaries by Fred Kudjo Kuwornu