Changing the Narrative of the World: Interview with Gabriele Del Grande and Dagmawi Yimer

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This article was translated into English by Laura Giacalone.

Color versions of one or more of the figures in this article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/rcin.

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Notes on contributors

Elena Korzhenevich

Elena Korzhenevich [Interviewer] ([email protected]) was born in Moscow, Russia, and has extensive experience in communications working for major international advertising agencies in Italy and the United States. In 2014 she joined lettera27, an Italian nonprofit cultural organization, where she is currently a Communication Director. The communication focus of lettera27 is to subvert the multiple stereotypes that surround the African continent and to amplify the voices of intellectuals, artists, and cultural activists from Africa and the diaspora.

Dagmawi Yimer [Interviewee] ([email protected]) was born and grew up in Addis Ababa. He left his country after the 2005 post-election unrest and came ashore in Lampedusa in 2006. He co-authored the film The Desert and the Sea (2007) with other migrants; codirected the 2008 multiple award winning documentary Like a Man on Earth and directed the documentary films Dear Italy (2009) and Nothing but the Sea (2011). In 2011 he coordinated and directing an episode of the collective film project Welcome to Italy. His latest work includes the 2013 film Va' pensiero (Walking Stories) about two racist attacks in Milan and Florence, and a Asmat (Names), a short film in memory of all victims of the sea produced in 2015.

Gabriele Del Grande [Interviewee] ([email protected]) is a writer and independent journalist with a degree in Oriental Studies from Bologna University. In 2006 Gabriele founded the observatory for the victims of the Fortress Europe borders, and since 2011, he has been covering the Arab Spring and the wars in Libya and Syria. He has published two books Mamadou Is Going to Die (2007) and Roma senza fissa dimora [Homeless Rome] in 2008. He collaborated on the documentary Like a Man on Earth (2008) and codirected the documentary On the Bride's Side (2014), which received awards in multiple film festivals around the world including the Venice Film Festival. Gabriele currently lives and works in London.