ERIKA TASINI
Erika is a writer and a director of film & theatre living in Rome.
After graduating in Comparative Literature at the University of Bologna, she earned a Master of Arts in Cinematic Critical Studies and a Master of Fine Arts in Directing at the University of California, Los Angeles. She studied Film and Theatre at the University of Kent, Canterbury, and attended the Conservatoire Européen d'Ecriture Audiovisuelle, in Paris.
Erika is currently developing the feature documentary LOOKING FOR DONNACIRCO and is in pre-production with VUOI VOLARE O NO, adapted from a short story by Etgar Keret.
Her previous films, WINTER SEA and CHRONICLES OF IMPECCABLE SPORTSMANSHIP, screened at prominent film festivals, including Slamdance, Edinburgh, the Chicago International Film Festival, LACMA, La Cinemathèque Francaise and the Torino Film Festival, where they were both awarded Best Shorts. Selected in the Berlinale Talents, she competed for the Today Berlin Award with her project LIFE ON VENUS. Erika also adapted Sheridan Le Fanu's novel CARMILLA, with director Carlotta Cerquetti, into the vampire movie THE HEART OF THE NIGHT.
For her stage collaborations with Theatre of NOTE, Moving Arts and The Actors' Gang, funded by Tim Robbins, Erika was a finalist for the Sherwood Award for Emerging Artists by the Centre Theatre Group, Los Angeles. She was also selected for both the Lincoln Center Directors' Lab and the multidisciplinary artistic residency ENPARTS at Dansenshus, Stockholm, where she created the three-screen installation THE EYE IS NOT THE CAMERA.
In the field of documentary, Erika wrote AN AFRICAN ELECTION. Programmed at IDFA, Sundance and Locarno, the film was nominated for the Spirit Independent Award for Best Documentary and theatrically released in the UK and the US. Erika also contributed, with her doc THE FITTING, to the participatory film OGGI INSIEME DOMANI ANCHE, that was distributed in Italian cinemas. For her documentary work, she was invited to the IDFA Academy and participated in the Flaherty Film Seminar.
Her film industry experience ranges from programming for the UCLA Film Archive, to selecting the Slamdance competition and consulting with Paramount Classics.
She's been lecturing on film at the California Institute of the Arts, John Cabot University; the School of Visual Arts; and the University of Oslo.