FOCUS DONATO SANSONE

SHORTS:
LOVECUBE, 2002, 2’ 50”
VIDEOGIOCO, 2009, 1’ 30”
TOPO GLASSATO AL CIOCCOLATO, 2011, 2’ 30”
GROTESQUE PHOTOBOOTH, 2012, 1’ 30”
PORTRAIT, 2013, 3’
JOURNAL ANIME’, 2015, 4’ 20”
ROBHOT, 2017, 6”
GHOSTCRASH, 2018, 1’
BAVURE, 2018, 5’
X.Y.U., 2019, 1’ 30”
CONCATENATION – AN EXPERIMENTAL VIDEO, 2020, 1’
CONCATENATION 2 - OLYMPIC GAME, 2020, 1’ 10”
ILVATRONIC, 2020, 1’ 4”

VIDEOCLIP:
SUBSONICA: DI DOMENICA, 2014, 4’
SUBSONICA: RESPIRARE, 2018, 4’
VERDENA: COLLE IMMANE, 2015, 3’ 20”
FABRIZIO RAT: COBALT, 2020, 3’

THEMES:
FISH&CHIPS, 2017, 40”
CARTOONMOVIE, 2017, 1’
SOUNDFRAME, 2018, 40

SPOT:
FORD DSFL DRIVING SKILLS FOR LIFE, 2016, 50”

Donato Sansone - Retrospective
by Pierpaolo Loffreda

Born in Basilicata in 1974, Donato Sansone grew up in Turin and went on to be a citizen of the world,working under the alias Milkyeyes. He studied at the Naples Academy of Fine Arts and then at the Centro Sperimentale di animazione in Turin,where he came soon under the spotlight for his strongly inventive and experimental approachwhich privilegesthe communicative dimension instead of the contrived or tortuous. Sansone has always been an eclectic artist, moving between two main lines of poetics that find different linguistic instruments. On one hand, the strong strokes that characterize his drawings give life to unpredictable actions, oftenwith pronounced sexual connotations; on the other hand, he creates compositions of deformed objects and real-life figures in transformation. These two paths are respectively exemplified in Robhot(1917) or X.Y.U. (2019) and in Journal animé (2015) or Bavure (2018), all of which were immediately appreciated and presented at BEST IN SHORTS here in Pesaro.

Not coincidentally, Sansone said, “I actually don’t have any particular moments. Ideas come up continuously, even too much, so that whatever I’ve done so far seems nothing to me comparedwithwhatIwould have liked andwould like to do.” Therefore, an irresistible creative urgency lies at the basis of the work of this film-maker, who began his artistic activity relatively late, around his early thirties, but then became a prolific artist, switching from pencils to digital drawing, and making these two worlds communicate. Many different materials come into play in hisfilms,supported by an effective sound design and pervaded by a flaunted, unprejudiced eroticism. On top of this, the combination of heterogeneous elements blends into an exciting compound of corporeal and inorganic.

He isscarcely interested in mere storytelling; he’d rather explore the oneiric dimension of reality, or let himself be transported by the inchoate unutterable, nonlinear, or undefined. In his films, grotesque deformation becomes a playful hermeneutic method (as in the classics, from Petronius onwards), that is, a purposeless instrument of knowledge for the audience. Hence thewrong-footing drive of hisfilms, accompanied by corrosivewit,which are obviously inspired from painting (from the expressionists to the surrealists, including Francis Bacon) as well as from cinema. Needless to say, his favourite film is David Lynch’s Lost Highway, but he is also familiarwith the atmospheres of Tim Burton and – in our opinion – Terry Gilliam and David Cronenberg. However, the multimedia approach is his choice method. Sansone’s works – always dominated by black humour – are characterized by a sprung rhythm,while sarcasm is privileged to keep a distance from seriousness and pedantry.

His versatility hasled him to work in the realm of music videos(with Subsonica, Verdena, and Fabrizio Rat), opening themes(Soundframes, Fish & Chips), and commercials too (such as Ford), where he managed to adapt the linguistic instruments he uses in his films to these other standards. His creativity was appreciated and awarded at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Anima mundi festival Brazil, International Animation Festival Hiroshima, the Cinémathèque Québécoise, Canal+, Sky Arte, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Sansone has now become one of the most acclaimed film-makers worldwide.

Donato Sansone studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Naples and then moved to Turin. There, he studied experimental animation and animation techniques and live action compositing at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. He now creates commercials, shorts, and music videos. His shorts are selected in the best festivals worldwide (Annecy Animation Film Festival, Anima mundi Festival Brasil, Hiroshima International Animation Festival) and are linked in several popular blogs (stashmedia.tv, creativeapplications.net, motiongraphics.nu, wired.com, Vimeo staff picks and many others). In 2011, the Cinémathèque Québécoise counted Videogioco among the 50 shorts that changed animation history.

In 2009, Videogioco wasreviewed by Cahiers du Cinéma. In 2013, Canal+ reported on his work. In 2014, Grotesque Photobooth was showcased by Saatchi & Saatchi at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity as one of the 20 videos of the year. His works are currently produced and distributed by the French company Autour de Minuit. In 2019, with the support of Canal+ they released the DVD Milkyeyes, a compilation of all his works 2003 through 2018, in France. He works freelance for important Italian agencies and musicians, such as Afterhours, Subsonica, Verdena, Francesco de Gregori, Spaccamonti, Ford, and Grom. In 2015, Canal+ produced his short Journal animé, shortlisted at the César Prize and longlisted among 70 shorts for the Academy Awards. In 2018, his video Ghostcrash became viral on Facebook, achieving 220 million views. Hi short Bavure is shortlisted for the 2020 César Prize.