Focus Mariano Baino
Mariano Baino, born in 1967 in Naples is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist. At a young age he left Italy for London. After a short film, Caruncula (1990), hailed by Ramsey Campbell as “an homage to the Italian masters of horror(...) a small masterpiece of perversity”, he directed his first feature film, Dark Waters (1994). Described by the Fantasia Festival of Montreal (where it won the Audience Award) as a "torchbearer of expressionist genre cinema," it won several awards, and was shown in prestigious venues such as the Lincoln Center in New York, the National Museum of Cinema in Turin, and various Italian and American film cinematheques. It's one of the 20 most frightening nun movies in history as listed by Variety. Mariano is also a renowned multimedia artist with art exhibitions in the US and Europe, notably : Ars Infecta at the Museum of Modern Art in Rome; Imago Ignis and Vultus Veli at the Leprosarium of Naples; Luctus Ignis at the Savoy Multiplex in Rome; the film and installation Lady 5.1 at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City; and Cyphers and Flames at the SoapBox Gallery in Brooklyn.
This demanding, and even uncompromising creator, despite several projects that have yet to come to fruition (notably the adaptation of Graham Masterton's Feast) never gave up on directing his second feature film, pouring his sweat, heart, and money into it. Twelve years of painful and eventful gestation were necessary for Astrid's Saints to finally come to light. Mariano Baino currently lives in New York with his partner, actress, co-writer, and composer Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni.
