JULY 18 - MASTERCLASS

BIOGRAPHY:

Alessandro Rak was born in 1977, he is a comic strip writer, author and director from Napoli. He started working as an illustrator and then went on to work in animation which he studied in Rome. After graduating he went on to teach at the Italian Comix school and in 2001 started collaborating artistically with his friend and colleague Andrea Scoppetta. Between 2001 and 2011 he made exhibitions at the Not Gallery, published comics and illustrated books like Ark (Grifo edizioni), Bye Bye Jazz (Lavieri), A Skeleton Story (GG Studio) and realized the storyboard for the film La volpe a tre zampe by Sandro Dionisio.

He has also worked as an artistic director and character designer for animation projects - such as Il piccolo Sansereno e il mistero dell'uovo di Virgilio plus videoclips Kanzone su Londra by 24 Grana and 'O sciore e 'o viento by Foja – he made the song for Cartoons on the Bay 2014. The Art of Happiness was his first animated feature film which was then made into a comic book with the same name (the preface is by Gomorra author Roberto Saviano). The film opened the 28th critic's weekof the 70th Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica di Venezia and won Arca Cinema Giovani award and Special Mention by FEDIC for Best Italian Film in Venice, the award for best Debut Film at  the 2013 Raindance Film Festival in London, the Audience Award at Anima 2014 – International Animation Film Festival of Bruxelles, Ciak d’Oro 2014 Bello & Invisibile and Best FIlm at the Expotoons 2014 in Buenos Aires.