Barbara Cupisti

Barbara Cupisti (born 24 January 1962) is an Italian director and actress. As a director, she focuses mainly on human rights documentaries.

Career as actress

Cupisti started her career as a dancer with the Luis Falcó company. In 1981, she enrolled at the Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico, which she left two years later to make her film debut in Tinto Brass' The Key. In 1989, she was the lead actress in Carlo Verdone's Il bambino e il poliziotto.

Career as director

Since 2002 she started to work as director for Rai Cinema. Her first documentary film Mothers premiered at the 64th Venice International Film Festival and won the David di Donatello for Best Documentary of the year.

Her second documentary, Forbidden Childhood, was screened in the festival circuit and has received the Audience Award for the Best Documentary Film at the Bahrein International Human Rights Film Festival (May 2009) and the Amnesty International Cinema and Human Rights Award at the Pesaro International Film Festival for the New Cinema (June 2009), and at the Bobbio Film Festival of Marco Bellocchio. UNICEF Italia gave to this movie the High Patronage.

(I am - Stories of slavery), her third film, is about human trafficking in Italy. It was presented at the 2011 Venice Film Festival with the patronage of Amnesty International Italy and was a finalist at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival.

Fratelli e Sorelle-storie di carcere is a two-episode documentary about the dramatic situation in Italian prisons. The film has been awarded with Premio Ilaria Alpi 2012, for the best documentary of the year and got the nomination for David di Donatello 2013.

Interferenze Rom 2013 was shot in the Republic of Macedonia, Italy, and France and talks about the Gipsy community in Europe.

Cupisti made a series of three documentaries about refugees from all over the word and the reasons for their exile, titled Exiles: The wars, Exiles: Tibet, and Exiles: The Environment.

In 2016 Exiles: The wars wins the Special Nastro d'argento of the National Syndicate of Italian Film Journalists.

In 2018, Womanity is released. The film tells the story of thirty-six hours of four women in India, Egypt and the United States. It attended the Rome Film Festival and won at the Italian Film Festival in Madrid.

In 2020, My America was released and shown at the Turin Film Festival and broadcast on RAI TV.

In 2022 and 2023, she filmed "Hotel Sarajevo" and "Wartime notes", the first reflecting on the 30th anniversary since the siege of Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia, and the latter on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and the role played by Ukrainian women.

Filmography

Actress

Year Title Role Notes 1982 The New York Ripper Heather Feature Film 1983 The Key Lisa Rolfe Feature Film 1985 Châteauvallon Alexandra TV series, 26 episodes International Airport L'hostess di terra TV series, 3 episodes 1987 Stage Fright Alicia Feature Film Eleven Days, Eleven Nights Alicia Feature Film Opera Signora Albertini Feature Film 1988 Piazza Navona TV series, 1 Episode: O Samba 1989 The Hell's Gate Erna Feature Film La salle de bain Doctor's Wife Feature Film The Church Lisa Feature Film Il bambino e il poliziotto Lucia Feature Film Dark Bar Elisabeth Feature Film 1990 Flight from Paradise Assassin Feature Film Formula I TV series Il volo di Teo Feature Film Eyewitness Elisa TV movie 1992 Edera Dalma TV series, 21 episodes Flesh and the Devil Maria Cristina TV movie 1994 Cemetery Man Magda Feature Film Only You Anna Feature Film 1995 L'anno prossimo... vado a letto alle dieci Betty Feature Film 1997 The Grey Zone Feature Film Commercial Break Mary Cantucci Feature Film 1999 Gialloparma Cristina Feature Film Not Registered Feature Film 2000 Denti Segretaria Dott Calandra Feature Film 2001–02 Distretto di Polizia Irene Martini TV series, 2 Episode: La vendetta, Doppio inganno 2002 Total Kheops Paola Feature Film Sotto gli occhi di tutti Barbara Feature Film

Director

YearTitleNotes 2002 The Water Mask Feature Film, Segment: Cornice 2007 Mothers Documentary 2008 Forbidden Childhood Documentary 2011 Io Sono Documentary 2012 Storie di carcere Documentary 2013 Interferenze Rom Documentary 2014 Exiles. The Wars Documentary 2015 Exiles. Tibet Documentary 2016 Exiles. The environment Documentary 2018 Womanity Documentary 2020My America Documentary 2022Hotel Sarajevo Documentary 2023 Wartime Notes Documentary