Gian Carlo Petraccaro

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)[1] is a film director from South Australia.[2] 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.[3]

Early life

Carlo Petraccaro was born in Adelaide, the son of production line workers at GMH and Clipsal.[1] He attended Thebarton High School, before graduating from Flinders University in 1988 with a Bachelor of Economics and a post-graduate Diploma in Accounting.[1]

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.[4][5] 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[1] (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 with the Tea Tree Players at Tea Tree Gully,[1] 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.

Career

Carlo started making short films in 1995. He made Misplaced in 1995, Search for the AntiChrist in 1997, Angst in 1998, Connections in 1999,[6] Arts Around Adelaide in 1999, and Venice in 2000.

He was a member of the Board of the South Australian Media Resource Centre[7] from 1997 to 1999.

In 2001, he acted as a consultant on Creamy Love, directed by Dick Dale.

In September 2009 he received funding[8] from the South Australian Film Corporation[9] to attend the 2009 SPAA Conference[10]

After a dozen years spent making his own short films,[1] or helping others with theirs, Carlo made his first feature film.[11] Offside was shot in 2008[12] and released in 2009.[13] It was also the first feature[14] produced by Urtext Film Productions,[15] an independent film company based in Adelaide, South Australia, which functions as a filmmakers co-op.[16] The film was independently financed[17][18] and shot in less than 30 days,[19][20] with limited access to locations.

In 2010, Petraccaro appeared in 15/Love, directed by Stephanie Mountzouris,[21][22] and acted as a consultant on Snapshots, directed by Chloe Gardner[23] and I Rot, directed by Josef Weber.[24]

In 2014, he assisted surrealist painter Andrew Baines produce the short fim Escape of the Corporate Battery Hen.[25][26]

Filmography

Director

Actor

Consultant

See also

References

External links