| Gian Carlo Petraccaro | |
|---|---|
| Born | 22 November 1962 Adelaide, South Australia, Australia |
| Other names | Gian Carlo, Carlo Petraccaro |
| Occupation | Film director |
| Years active | 1995 - present |
Gian Carlo Petraccaro (born 22 November 1962) is a film director from South Australia.[1] He is usually called "Carlo Petraccaro", though he has received film credits as "Gian Carlo". He is best known as the screenwriter and director of the independent film Offside.[2]
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Carlo Petraccaro was born in Adelaide, the son of production line workers at GMH and Clipsal. He attended Thebarton High School, before graduating from Flinders University in 1988 with a Bachelor of Economics and a post-graduate Diploma in Accounting.
After early employment with Bridgestone Australia, he went on to work for the Treasury Department of the Government of South Australia as the Management Accountant. During this time, the State Bank of South Australia suffered an irreversible financial setback, which led to its collapse.[3][4] Carlo arrived at work early one morning during the 1991 crisis and, as a registered signatory, was required to sign thirteen individual cheques of AUD 99,000,000 (for a total of $1.287 billion) as part of the Bank bailout.
He inherited a love of movies from his mother and frequently watched them on TV with her. He was a ten year-old boy, engrossed in movie fantasies about "fighting villains for a beautiful woman in a foreign country" when he first saw The Godfather, which became his greatest influence as a director.
His mother loved actors, so Carlo decided to become an actor. During his participation in a now-forgotten comedy/farce, he was thrust into the role of director and found that it came naturally. He has since developed an approach which is a mixture of careful story-boarding and free-flowing improvisations during rehearsal.
Carlo was a member of the Board of the South Australian Media Resource Centre[5] from 1997 to 1999. In September 2009 he received funding[6] from the South Australian Film Corporation[7] to attend the 2009 SPAA Conference[8]
After a dozen years spent making his own short films, or helping others with theirs, Carlo made his first feature film. Offside was shot in 2008 and released in 2009. It was also the first feature[9] produced by Urtext Film Productions,[10] an independent film company based in Adelaide, South Australia, which functions as a filmmakers co-op.[11] The film was independently financed[12][13] and shot in less than 30 days,[14][15] with limited access to locations.