Mirco Mencacci

Mirco Mencacci (born 1961) is a prominent Italian sound designer who works with all aspects of sound, principally within film, art, and music.[1]

Mirco Mencacci
Born1961
Pontedera
Pisa, Tuscany, Italy
NationalityItalian
Occupations
Years active1981–present
Awards
  • Maxxi Award 2014
  • Special Jury Award at Locarno Cinema 2016
Websitehttp://www.samworld.it/

In 1981, Mencacci founded the SAM recording-facility in Lari, Italy. The studio is also known for its independent record label, book production, film editing, and sound design. Since 2001, he has been fighting a personal battle against noise pollution, the second biggest pollutant in the world.[2]

From 1996 to 2011, Mencacci relocated to Rome, where in 1999 he established a secondary arm of SAM studios, providing post-production services for cinema. In 2001 he also became a partner of Sound On Studios.[3] During his time in Rome, Mencacci coordinated and supervised the post-production on over 400 films.[4][5][6]

Early life

Mencacci was born in Lari, Tuscany in Italy. At 4 years old, he was rendered blind due to a shotgun accident in his grandfather's garden. He moved in Genoa at the age of 7 to attend a disabled school, specifically for the blind. Mencacci's story inspired the Italian autobiographical film Red like the Sky which was directed Cristiano Bortone in 2002. The film illustrates the conditions of disabled schools in Italy in the 1970s.[7]

The film won several Audience Awards at the São Paulo International Film Festival[8] and at the Sydney Film Festival.[9] It also won the David di Donatello of the Youth.[10]

Cinema

Mencacci has crafted sound design for international films that have screened in over one hundred film festivals across the world.[11] His work has also featured and been exhibited at the Guggenheim in New York City, MOMA, Pompidou in Paris, MAXXI Museum in Rome, and the Venice Biennale with films including Michelangelo's Eye to Eye by Michelangelo Antonioni, Puccini and the Girl by Paolo Benvenuti.[12][13]

He has frequently collaborated with director Yuri Ancarani, on films including, The Challenge for which Mencacci received the special Jury Award at Locarno Cinema, San Siro which won the Maxxi Award in 2014 and the Sky Arts award in 2014. Mencacci also worked on the trilogy composed by Il Capo which in 2010 screened at the Venice Film Festival, Piattaforma Luna which premiered at the Rome Film Festival in 2011, and the film Da Vinci from the Venice Biennale in 2013.[14][15][16][17]

Mencacci has worked prolifically on films that have screened internationally at film festivals such as the Venice Film Festival,[18][19] the San Francisco International Film Festival,[20][21] Eye Honors New York,[22][23] the Milwaukee Film Festival,[24][25] and the Hamburg International Short Film Festival.[26]

Mencacci is the inventor of the Spherical Sound System,[27] which he uses in his cinematographic works. In 2016 he was invited by Dolby to the Casa del Cinema in Rome in to demonstrate his system to audiences and how it applied to the newly-launched Dolby Atmos system.[28]

Mirco Mencacci during the shooting of the film The Challenge in Qatar

Filmography
Year Title Role Director
2001 The Ignorant Fairies[29] Sound Supervisor Ferzan Özpetek
2002 The Embalmer Sound Supervisor Matteo Garrone
2003 The Best of Youth Sound Supervisor Marco Tullio Giordana
2004 Michelangelo Eye to Eye Sound Designer Michelangelo Antonioni
2004 First Love Sound Supervisor Matteo Garrone
2006 Fascists on Mars Sound Designer Corrado Guzzanti
2008 Puccini and the Girl Sound Designer Paolo Benvenuti
2010 Il Capo Sound Designer Yuri Ancarani
2011 Piattaforma Luna Sound Designer Yuri Ancarani
2013 Da Vinci Sound Designer Yuri Ancarani
2013 Nato prematuro Sound Designer Enzo Cei
2014 San Siro Sound Designer Yuri Ancarani
2014 Séance Sound Designer Yuri Ancarani
2015 Il Rifugio Sound Designer Guy Masseaux
2015 The Colour of Grass Sound Designer Juliane Biasi
2016 The Challenge Sound Designer Yuri Ancarani
2015 The Sounds of Massimo Bottura’s Lasagna Co-Director & Sound Designer Yuri Ancarani & Mirco Mencacci
2017 Whipping Zombie Sound Designer Yuri Ancarani
2018 The Dark Wood Sound Designer Guy Masseaux
2018 San Vittore Sound Designer Yuri Ancarani

Music

Mencacci is a prolific music producer and recording engineer across multi genres and international artists. He has been involved in the recording of jazz, classical, pop and experimental music from artists including Benson Taylor, Blonde Redhead, Playing for Change, Luke Winslow-King, Niia, Stefano Bollani, Anthony Sidney, Mauro Refosco, Tony Scott, Sportfreunde Stiller, Irio de Paula, Nguyên Lê, Kazu Makino, Ornella Vanoni, Nada[30] Marina Rei, Il Teatro degli Orrori, Paolo Fresu, Enrico Rava, Bruno Tommaso, Nada, Stewart Copeland, Giovanni Caccamo, Riki (Riccardo Marcuzzo), Zen Circus, Bandabardò, One Dimensional Man, Tooth, Emma Morton, Thegiornalisti, Mauro Ermanno Giovanardi, and many others.[31]

Career

Mencacci regularly hold master classes on sound in cinema across Europe and at international educational institutions including universities & film festivals. In 2009 he travelled to the United States to provide a lectures in sound design for cinema at Syracuse University.[32]

He participated as a speaker on the experimentation of Spherical Sound, and the system of sound recording at Artevisione with Sky and Careof in Milan in 2016,[33] Centro Professione Musica at CPM in Milan,[34] and the Cinekid[35] festival in Amsterdam in 2016, Festival du film de Beauvais in Paris in 2012, Ear to the Earth in New York City in 2006. In 2006, he was a member of the Grand Jury for the Festival International du Film d'Aubagne.

Mencacci has given many interviews and special appearance talks throughout his career, including being the special guest of RAI Uno TG1 news, La vita in diretta, in 2016,[36] an interview for TG1 Persone by Angelo Angelastro in 2014,[37] and many others. He participated in the 90th anniversary celebrations of the Italian Blind Union as a blind person who is distinguished in prestigious activities.[38][39]

References
  1. "'Rosso Come Il Cielo'". 17 August 2007.
  2. http://www.samworld.it/
  3. http://soundonstudios.it/
  4. "Casa del Cinema. San Siro di Yuri Ancarani, martedì 12 tre proiezioni dalle 18.30". 11 May 2015.
  5. Kuppers, Petra (15 May 2019). Disability Arts and Culture: Methods and Approaches. Intellect Books. ISBN 9781789380019.
  6. http://soundonstudios.it/
  7. Robert Koehler (January 15, 2008). "Review: 'Red Like the Sky'". Variety. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  8. "'Vermelho como o céu' ganha festival de cinema no Irã". O Globo. 28 July 2008. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  9. Garry Maddox (June 23, 2008). "Favourites head for obscurity". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  10. "David, il vincitore è Tornatore". TgCom24. June 14, 2007. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  11. "TQS".
  12. "Mirco Mencacci". Archived from the original on October 30, 2019.
  13. a. https://mubi.com/cast/mirco-mencacci
  14. "Tutto Questo Sentire: Excercises on Displacement 1/5".
  15. "The Challenge (2016) - Yuri Ancarani | IDFA".
  16. Ancarani, Yuri (17 October 2016). "Video: Massimo Bottura". The New York Times.
  17. "Mirco Mencacci".
  18. "Puccini and the Girl - Paolo Benvenuti, Paola Baroni - Italy | Euro Cinema | English - Eurochannel".
  19. http://ilcapo.it/
  20. "The Challenge - IMDb". IMDb.
  21. "THE CHALLENGE • Slingshot Films". 14 July 2016.
  22. "The Challenge - IMDb". IMDb.
  23. "Il capo - IMDb". IMDb.
  24. "The Challenge - IMDb". IMDb.
  25. "THE CHALLENGE • Slingshot Films". 14 July 2016.
  26. "Da Vinci - IMDb". IMDb.
  27. "The Chief: Yuri Ancarani extracts a striking portrait of marble". 9 November 2015.
  28. "The Chief: Yuri Ancarani extracts a striking portrait of marble". 9 November 2015.
  29. "Mirco Mencacci". IMDb.
  30. "Mauro Ermanno Giovanardi, Sinfonico Honolulu – Maledetto Colui Che È Solo (2013, CD) - Discogs". Discogs. 21 May 2013.
  31. "Mirco Mencacci". Discogs.
  32. Douglas Quin
  33. "Careof".
  34. "Corsi accademici - CPM - Music Institute".
  35. "Ear to the Earth". Archived from the original on 2017-09-19. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  36. "L'Uomo che cattura i suoni". 4 January 2023.
  37. "TG1 PERSONE del 07 Giugno 2014".
  38. "Evento | WebTV".
  39. "I novant'anni dell'Unione ciechi". 28 September 2010.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.