ANDREA CAPRANICO stumbled onto Manila as he followed his heart which almost sounds like the premise for a chick flick. However, it is more of a journey of a free spirited artist who experienced much of the world first hand and found a home here in the Philippines.
Hailing from Turin in Northern Italy, Andrea met his future wife Ilaria owing to his father referring her as a contact for any eventuality while he was biking through Mongolia and China.
A friendship born out of chance that blossomed into a loving relationship that came to its fruition in their hometown of Turin, against the backdrop of the 2006 Winter Olympics.
On the artistic and professional growth front, after earning his degree in chemistry and having dipped his feet in scientific research as well as the corporate rat-race, Andrea decided to pursue his truest dream of becoming a world traveler, photographer and a filmmaker.
Hence his choice of pursuing further studies in Los Angeles, to hone his visual story telling craft. Having discarded the possibility of transferring to the United States, as he always considered himself a father and husband first, he decided on planting his roots in this land of contradictions that gave his keen eye fuel to create various tales of human interest.
His visual storytelling techniques are put to full use in producing documentaries ranging from life as experienced by children living on the dumpsite in Tondo (Smokey24H-Philippines, 2006), penitents stepping into the shoes of the Christ yearly during holy week to atone for personal and collective sins (Maleldo-Philippines, 2008) and more.
While much of his work is set in the Philippines, he explores subjects he has encountered while journeying through other countries like Italy, Mongolia, Morocco, USA, and Cameroon.
One such documentary set in Cameroon, Eye to Eye released in 2009, takes on the ill effects of commercial hunting in Central Africa and explores possible solutions to the problem.
This particular one was the first production that earned Capranico and his team, Nicholas Dunakin Wiesent, Breanna Wing and Hanna Taylor, the award for best documentary of in no less than three festivals: “Real to Reel Film Festival 2010”, “Long Island International Film Expo 2010” and “Cecil Awards 2010”.
He then set out to spin tales that unfold as observational documentaries dealing with subjects of particular human interest in the Philippines.
His first full length documentary, The Undertaker (2014, produced by Bianca Balbuena), is set in a cemetery in Manila, where the living make their abode side by side with the dead.
It is there where Ivan, who aspires to become a chef, and his band on Tanods (deputized law enforcers) are tasked to chase prostitutes, drug dealers and murders thus achieving a daily situation of precarious peace and order.
Having been shot over three years, this documentary impartially shows the striking dichotomy of Ivan’s aspirations and his law enforcing duties at the cemetery by night. However, a political turnover after elections brings change and Ivan’s Tanod days are suddenly over.
Capranico’s second full length observational document, The Landscape Within (2015, produced by Darlene Catly Malimas) chronicles concept artist Eric Estampador Cabales’s interior struggle in coming to terms with his father’s death.
With a strong desire to move forward, he is able to find artistic inspiration and strength in returning to the land of his forbearers, where the river meets the sea. The viewer witnesses various types of landscapes, the physical, the artistic and the interior one, while the artist goes through a catharsis in achieving a measure of peace within.
And this is only the beginning as Andrea is currently working on his third full length observational documentary inspired by the reality that surrounds him in his adopted home.
We will certainly expect great things from him as he continues to produce and direct more works while maintaining a consultancy as an independent producer and cinematographer for local and international clients, all these without losing sight though of his family life.
Image credits: Wuv Sandoval