Director, Executive Producer, Producers Associate, Screenplay
Alessandro Basile
basile.ale@gmail.com
Born in Cartagena in 1971, this film and television director and producer has directed music videos, advertising spots and television content and broadcasts. His first film El cielo was awarded an FDC (Film Development Fund) grant for post-production in 2007.
Basile graduated from Jorge Washington High School in Cartagena and then, as he himself puts it, “bounced around… a little philosophy, a little journalism, a few documentary workshops at the Museum of Modern Art with Cuban Jorge Fraga,” before traveling to New York to attend a workshop at the New York Film Academy. After finishing his studies in NYC he spent time working there “in anything that had anything to do with film” including as a stage hand for porno films and driving a film truck. He has spoken at seminars and often points out that most of his experience has been acquired in the world of television.
In 2003, Basile shot a number of music videos including “No se me acaba la sed” by singer Julio Nava, and directed advertising spots for Rhayuela Films, making commercials for brands such as TCC, Aspirina, Chupi Plum, Galletas Festival and an international margarine company with headquarters in El Salvador.
He has been General Director of RCN’s yearly Miss Colombia Pageant since 1997 and in 2004 and 2005 he was executive producer of the TV soap Las noches de Luciana starring Paola Turbay, written by Ana María Parra and Diego Vivanco and directed by Magdalena La Rotta, Silvia Amaya and Germán Porras. From 2005 to 2006, Basile was executive producer of the TV soap La hija del mariachi written by Mónica Agudelo, Mauricio Miranda and Diego León Hoyos (Soplo de vida), who also directed the series. In 2009, he was executive producer of Las trampas del amor (2009) written by Mauricio Miranda and Miguel Ángel Lozano and directed by Armando Barbosa. Basile was also executive producer of the TV series Collar de perlas based on the life of popular Colombian singer Marbelle, directed by Rodrigo Triana (Soñar no cuesta nada, Como el gato y el ratón).
His film work includes the 16-mm medium-length film Zapping, part of the feature film Bogotá 2016 (2000), awarded a post-production grant from the Colombian Ministry of Culture, a production award from Bogota’s Cinemateca Distrital, an Honorable Mention at the Bogota Film Festival, and selected for the Cartagena Film Festival and nominated for an award at the Viña del Mar Film Festival; and the 8-mm short film Ángela y Dante, his graduation project for the New York Film Academy. He was executive producer of the short film Historias menores by director Daniel Mejia, which won the Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño award. His first feature film El cielo (2009), shot entirely on location in Cartagena, was awarded an FDC grant and was screened at the 47th Cartagena International Film Festival. Basile developed the story with Ana Maria Vallejo based on the saying “whoever says marijuana is evil has never seen Heaven”. The film touches on controversial subjects such as legalization of marijuana, corruption and the social inequalities in Cartagena society.