Biography:

Calogero Salvo is an independent film and video maker living in New York City.

Salvo has been producing and directing film and video for the past 20 years in Latin America, Europe and The United States. He is fluent in Spanish, Italian and English and has experience working in documentaries, feature length narratives, television programs and personal video portraits.

He obtained his MFA in Film at The San Francisco Art Institute, and has also studied “Communication Arts” at the University of San Francisco in California; “Journalism” at Universidad Católica Andres Bello, and “Advertising” at Instituto Universitario de Nuevas Profesiones in Caracas, Venezuela.

Calogero Salvo began his film career making ethnographic documentaries in his native Venezuela.  His approach to film and video is very intimate and personal focusing on diverse issues such as immigration, human rights and AIDS.

Among his best film and video works are:

Juan Félix Sánchez: A portrait of a folk artist who for the past forty years lived and worked in a remote valley 12,000 feet up in the Venezuelan Andes

La Guajira: A poetic documentary about the indigenous people that inhabit the Guajira peninsula between Venezuela and Colombia.

Three by Three: An experimental docudrama that explores the lives of three people among them a Cuban gay refugee.

Terranova: A feature length narrative film that tells the story of an immigrant family in 1950’s Venezuela.  This film was a co-production between Venezuela, France and Italy and includes Antonio Banderas as part of its international cast.

Positive: Life with HIV: A four, one hour programs focus on the impact AIDS has had on the various communities most affected by the pandemic in the United States and Puerto Rico. They include various styles of story telling such as personal documentaries, animation, performance, experimental, dance, and fiction.

Mamá, I Have Something To Tell You.  A personal video essay that presents a dialogue between Mr. Salvo and his mother as they confront each others’ feelings about homosexuality.  Interwoven from poetic textures and interviews, this video essay explores issues of “coming out”, love, and death within the Latino family.

Seen but not Heard:  A video documentary follows the lives of four Mexican women and their families whose undocumented husbands and partners lost their lives in the tragic events of 9/11.

A question of justice: A video documentary that traces the lives of people whose encounter with death in their families and communities brings out the best in them. Crossing political and socio-economic barriers, the film explores the relationship between impunity and justice, acceptance and anger, law enforcement and civic duty.

All of his films and videos have been awarded international recognition from festivals such as The Margaret Mead, the American Indian, Chicago, San Francisco, Ann Arbor and San Antonio Film Festival in the USA. Festival Indígena Latinoamericano in Mexico and Brazil.  The Bogotá Film Festival in Colombia, Viña del Mar in Chile, Merida in Venezuela and Havana in Cuba. The Florence, Sidney, Berlin Film Festivals and at The Cinema Du Reel in France.

His films have also been shown on television in Europe, the United States and South America.

Salvo has written several screenplays including Three By Three, Terranova, Watershed, The Second Time Around and Nighttime in the City.  

He has also been involved in the independent film community since the beginning of his career and has served on the board of directors of Frameline in San Francisco; the Latino Film and Video Collaborative, The New Festival, and the Lesbian and Gay Center in New York. 

He has been invited as a guest speaker at several US universities and colleges across the States: (Harvard, North Carolina, Berkeley, Colorado) as well an at international universities in Europe (Universitat Ramon Llull in Barcelona); and  in Latin America, (Venezuela, Colombia, and Chile), among others.-