Emilio Insolera was born on 29 January 1979 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into an ItalianDeaf family, the youngest son of automotive toolmaker Alfio Insolera and bank employee Maria Cristina Drovetta, and has an older brother, Humberto,[3] who is also Deaf. Growing up, Insolera developed a keen interest in acting and filmmaking. With no access to closed captions on TV, he recalls how his family’s imagination often filled in the gaps of dialogues. To nurture his interest, his parents regularly took him to movie theaters or rented VHS tapes, which were typically in their original language and subtitled.[4]
Following the rampant hyperinflation in 1989, Insolera's family moved back to Italy, first to Sicily later to various cities frequently, eventually setting in Rome. Prior to completing high school, Insolera was awarded the Fulbright and Roberto Wirth scholarship to attend Gallaudet University, in Washington, D.C., the only liberal arts college for the Deaf in the world. There, he earned his bachelor's degree in Film and Sign Language Linguistics. After freelancing for various indie film houses and working for MTV in New York City, he pursued and obtained a master's degree in Mass Communication with summa cum laude honors from the University of Rome La Sapienza.[5][6][7] Although sign language is his native language, Insolera speaks and reads lips fluently.
Insolera wrote, directed and produced the long feature superhero film Sign Gene: The First Deaf Superheroes. The film, shot between Japan, the US and Italy, centers on deaf superheroes who have the ability to create superhuman powers through the use of sign language.[8] "Creatively, it all started with Japan," Insolera tells The Japan Times. "My first impression was that I had stumbled into the future, but as a linguist, I was also instantly fascinated with Japanese and how it has a relationship with sign language. Kanji are usually concepts or ideas and then hiragana acts as a bridge for communication. It's the same with sign language: we use finger spelling (spelling out the alphabet with your hands) between our conceptual signs."[9]
The characters are blessed with arcane powers "like those, when signing with finger guns, hands actually metamorphose into bonafide weapons, replete with spewing fire and all sorts; or where, when signing the word 'close', of being able to make doors close at will."[10]
Influenced by films such as Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982) and Black Rain (1989), as well as the animated 1988 film Akira, Insolera originally planned to make a short film but it garnered such a groundswell of interest with people offering to become involved, that Insolera, upon realizing it had the legs for a shot at the big time, had to rewrite the script into a feature-length.[11] The casting came by way of word of mouth: Insolera was especially looking for native signers fluent in sign language.[12]
The film had its world premiere on 8 September 2017 in Milan, was released in theatres by UCI Cinemas on 14 September 2017,[13][14][15][3][16] had its US debut on 13 April 2018[17] and was released in Japan on 14 September 2018.[18] The film was also presented at the Italian Pavilion, Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic during the 71st Cannes Film Festival.[19]
Sign Gene: The First Deaf Superheroes received positive reviews from critics. On Los Angeles Times, Michael Rechtshaffen describes the "fresh, unique filmmaking voice" as a "fast-paced potpourri of stock footage combined with sign-language and stroboscopic action sequences performed by a deaf cast, video effects simulating grainy, scratchy film stock and that aforementioned all-enveloping sound mix, with an end result that proves as wildly inventive as it is empowering".[20] On Avvenire it reads the film "will mostly like to the younger generation accustomed to the rapid and psychedelic language of video games or Japanese cartoons".[3] Writing for ASVOFF, Giorgia Cantarini says the story is intricate and "very fascinating. The sounds create an unexpected important part, sometimes overwhelming who is watching. All happens very fast and astonishes you with a vibrant energy".[16] On Corriere della Sera, Michela Trigari calls Sign Gene a film that uses the science fiction as a medium to capture the imagination and "make visible what is invisible to the eyes".[15] The film is making waves, and has inspired Elena Pizzuto, an Italian linguist, to declare it "the symbol of activism for the visual community"[21] and Paul Dakin, from Hektoen International, an "unlikely cult classic".[22]
In November 2018, Insolera appeared on the cover of Tokyo Weekender taken by worldwide known photographer Leslie Kee[23][24] and was featured on the main poster of the same photographer's 20th anniversary photo exhibition "WE ARE LOVE" in Ginza, Tokyo.[25][26]
Starting from January 2019, Insolera collaborates with Striscia la notizia, an Italian satirical television program on the Mediaset controlled Canale 5 on the production of various shows.[27][28][29][30] Striscia la notizia was ranked the most viewed television program of the spring season 2019 by Auditel.[31]
During the same month, Insolera was featured in a full pages fashion story on Vanity Fair Italia with Carola Insolera taken by Rosi Di Stefano.[32]
In September 2019, it was announced that Insolera had joined the Simon Kinberg espionage The 355 alongside Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyongo, Bingbing Fan, Edgar Ramirez and Sebastian Stan. The film was released by Universal Pictures in 2022.[33]Academy Award Winner for Best Actress Jessica Chastain helped Insolera get an audition with Simon Kinberg and he landed the role of Giovanni Lupo, a hacker. The character "is the type of person who, like many deaf people in real life, was able to reach a very high level on his own. It's not explained in the movie but perhaps thanks to his deafness, Lupo may have had higher communication barriers and isolated himself to connect with technology to a great extent. Technology became his best friend", he commented.[4]
In April 2024, Insolera was featured on the cover of a photo exhibition organized by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Supermagazine. The exhibition featured 30 international celebrities, each showcasing items from different LVMH Maisons. Insolera was dressed in Loro Piana, the Maison assigned to him. The magazine also included photos of his family, all wearing items from the brand. [35][36]
In July 2024, Paramount Pictures released Here After, a thriller by Robert Salerno, in which Insolera worked as a consultant. [37]
Personal life
Carola Insolera and Emilio Insolera (2018)
He is in relationship with Norwegian model Carola Insolera, whom he met while in Tokyo and has two daughters.[38][39]
Activism
Insolera partnered with LISMedia and the Mason Perkins Deafness Fund to develop various media resources in sign language. Together with researchers Elena Radutzky and Mauro Mottinelli, he produced the first Italian Sign Language dictionary in digital format, which is now available on DVD and as an app.[40][41][42]
The concept of a mutant is a common trope in comic books and science fiction. The new phenotypes that appear in fictional mutations generally go far beyond what is typically seen in biological mutants and often result in the mutated life form exhibiting superhuman abilities or qualities.
Louis Laurent Marie Clerc was a French teacher called "The Apostle of the Deaf in America" and was regarded as the most renowned deaf person in American Deaf History. He was taught by Abbé Sicard and deaf educator Jean Massieu, at the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets in Paris. With Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, he co-founded the first school for the deaf in North America, the Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, on April 15, 1817, in the old Bennet's City Hotel, Hartford, Connecticut. The school was subsequently renamed the American School for the Deaf and in 1821 moved to 139 Main Street, West Hartford. The school remains the oldest existing school for the deaf in North America.
Canale 5 is an Italian free-to-air television channel of Mediaset, owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. It was the first private television network to have national coverage in Italy in 1980. On 4 December 2012, Mediaset launched Canale 5 HD, a simulcast of Canale 5 in high-definition. The channel is aimed at a primarily adult audience, offering, mainly, entertainment, movies and TV series. Since January 2013, Canale 5 has been directed by Giancarlo Scheri.
Striscia la notizia is an Italian satirical television program on the Mediaset-controlled Canale 5. Launched in 1988, it is meant to be a parody of the daily news, which airs right before the program, but Striscia also satirizes government corruption and exposes scams with the help of local reporters who are also comedians. The program is created by Antonio Ricci and is hosted by two major comedians.
Giorgia Palmas is an Italian television personality, actress and model. She became famous following her appearances on the Italian television show Striscia la notizia.
Deaf cinema is a movement that includes all works produced and directed by deaf people or members of the deaf community and is led by deaf actors. All these works have a tendency to nurture and develop the culture's self image and to reflect correctly the core of the Deaf culture and language.
Ezio Greggio is an Italian comedian, actor, writer and film director.
Jean Massieu was a pioneering deaf educator. One of six deaf siblings, he was denied schooling until age thirteen when he met Abbé Sicard, who enrolled him in the Institute national des jeunes sourds de Bordeaux-Gradignan, the Bordeaux School for Deaf Children. There he learned to read and write French, and later helped develop the first formalized French Sign Language. This French Sign Language was later adapted into American Sign Language. He taught at the famous school for the deaf in Paris where Laurent Clerc was one of his students. He began work after a scandal in Paris in Rodez and dedicated his life to educating deaf children. Later he founded a deaf school in Lille, France.
Paolo Bonolis is an Italian television host. He made his debut in 1981 on 3, 2, 1... contatto!, a programme for children that aired on Italian national broadcaster Rai.
Benjamin James Bahan is a professor of ASL and Deaf Studies at Gallaudet University and a member of the deaf community. He is an influential figure in American Sign Language literature as a storyteller and writer of deaf culture. He is known for the stories "The Ball Story" and "Birds of a Different Feather". He is known for writing the book A Journey into the Deaf-World (1996) with Robert J. Hoffmeister and Harlan Lane. Bahan also co-wrote and co-directed the film Audism Unveiled (2008) with his colleague Dirksen Bauman.
Emilio Solfrizzi is an Italian actor and comedian.
Francesco (Francio) Mazza is an Italian writer, script-writer and director.
Edoardo Stoppa is an Italian television personality.
This is a list of Italian television related events from 1988.
Carola Insolera is a Norwegian born fashion model signed with Women Management Milano.
Sign Gene: The First Deaf Superheroes is a 2017 superhero film written, produced, directed and starred by Emilio Insolera. The story revolves around a deaf agent, Tom Clerc, from New York City who is a carrier of a powerful genetic mutation. He is sent to Japan with his colleague, Ken Wong, to investigate crimes believed to have been committed by Japanese deaf mutants. The film's characters, both villains and agents, use sign language as their superhuman powers. The film also stars Carola Insolera, Ben Bahan, Hiroshi Vava, Humberto Insolera and Noboru Kuragawa.
Humberto Insolera is a deaf Italian politician, academic and advocate for the deaf and people with disabilities.
Antonio Ricci is an Italian television writer and showrunner.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
