From the early years of the new millennium, the creative documentary genre is the one that has most helped filmmakers from the new generations experiment with different practices and approaches without fearing to deal with the contamination of genres and the hybridisation of languages and formats.

CSC Sicilia, established in 2008 following an agreement between the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, the Region of Sicily, and the Palermo Municipality, is located in the Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, a site of industrial archaeology. Restored to the city of Palermo thanks to a restoration project, Pavilion #4 has 1,800 square metres of covered area.

The three-year training course in creative Documentary is a permanent workshop during which students are invited to an ongoing education based on teaching modules to develop ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ study tracks. The former are designed to provide knowledge and teach to master each phase of development, making, and production of a documentary film. The ‘vertical’ educational offer is meant to delve into the discipline and identify the expressive meaning and requirements. By way of continuous experiencing approaches and languages as well as conducting critical analyses of different realms of the imagination, besides the study of film history, students define their own creative autonomy all the while learning that self-discipline and sense of responsibility are founding qualities of every filmmaker.

The course’s goal is to acquire skills that are immediately marketable in employment. During the first year, students are supposed to make a short or medium-length documentary in which they put in practice all that they learned in the classes of directing, dramaturgy, production, cinematography, editing, and sync sound. The second-year programme foresees classes in trans-media storytelling and new media, while a part of it is focused on how to reuse archival footage found in audio-visual libraries. To this end, cooperation agreements have been signed with the major archives in the national territory. The second-year exercise duration can reach feature-length levels.

The third year is entirely devoted to making the graduation film. During the development phase of all their school films, students are accompanied by a team composed of the directing and production instructors.

The faculty includes masters of cinema and well-known or young talents of the ‘cinema of the real,’ thus providing a diverse educational offer. The programme actually foresees intensive workshops curated by professionals: lectures and workshops to help the future filmmakers try their hand at different genres and work methods.

On top of the workshops, the Documentary Course offers several master classes every year: personalities of cinema, but also from the worlds of literature, journalism, photography, visual arts, and social and philosophical sciences, who tackle the difficult job of interpreting and narrating reality on a daily basis.

At the conclusion of the three-year course and upon achievement of the course objectives, the School awards the historic CSC diploma, which is now equivalent to a Bachelor’s Degree (L03 DAMS) pursuant to Ministerial Decree no. 378 of April 24^th, 2019.

Members of the faculty of the past few years: Tarek Ben Abdallah (director of photography), Marco Alessi (producer), Roberto Andò (film director), Simone Arcagni and Serafino Murri (new media), Benni Atria (editor), Marco Bertozzi (film historian and director), Maurizio Braucci (screenwriter and author), Letizia Caudullo (editor), Alessia Cervini (film historian), Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio (film directors), Leonardo Di Costanzo (film director), Angelo Ferracuti (writer), Sara Fgaier (editor), Michelangelo Frammartino (film director), Aline Hervé (editor), Mike Hoolboom (film director), Helena Janeczek (writer), Cédric Kahn (film director), Carlo Lo Giudice (film director), Cecilia Mangini (film director), Francesca Manieri (screenwriter), Alina Marazzi (film director), Pietro Marcello (film director), Serena Marcenò (professor of Philosophy of storytelling), Pietro Montani (philosopher), Edoardo Morabito (editor), Maura Morales Bergmann (director of photography), Emiliano Morreale (film historian and critic), Joshua Oppenheimer (film director), Gianfranco Pannone (film director), Valentina Pedicini (film director), Gianfilippo Pedote (producer), Paolo Pisanelli (film director), Nicolas Philibert (film director), Andrea Pomella (writer), Luca Ricciardi (producer), Laura Romano (producer),  Domenico Scarpa (writer and literary critic), Claire Simon (film director), Walter Siti (writer), Riccardo Spagnol (sound editor), Carola Susani (writer), Benedetta Tobagi (writer), Margarethe von Trotta (film director).

Costanza Quatriglio

After graduation in law, she got her diploma in direction at the CSC. She is a director and a screenwriter. Her debut with “L’isola” at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, 56th Cannes Film Festival in 2003 earned her important awards, such as the Cicae Prize and the Fipresci. In the same year the making of “Racconti per l’isola” was invited to the Venice Film Festival. With ‘Terramatta’ in 2013 and ‘Triangle’ in 2015 Costanza Quatriglio was therefore twice awarded with the Nastro d’Argento for best documentary. Among her awarded documentaries presented to the major International Festivals (Venice Film Festival, Locarno Festival, Turin, Madrid, Rome): ‘Ècosaimale’? (2000), ‘Il bambino Gioacchino’ (2000), ‘La borsa di Hélène’ (2000), ‘L’insonnia di Devi’ (2001), ‘Raìz’ (2004) ‘Il mondo addosso’ (2006), ‘Il mio cuore umano’ (2009), ‘Terramatta’ (2012), ‘Con il fiato sospeso’ (2013), ‘Triangle’ (2014), ’87 hours’ (2015). In 2018 she  is back to the Locarno Festival with the film ‘Sembra mio figlio’, awarded with the Ciak d’Oro, and in the same year she received the Visioni dal Mondo award. Costanza Quatriglio also worked for tv. In 2007 was the creative producer of the italian tv series ‘Un posto al sole’. She has been teaching film directing, documentary cinema and dramaturgy of reality for over 15 years: one of the early founders of the Gian Maria Volonté Film School, lecturer at the Master in Ideation and Film Production for Università Cattolica, IED (European Institute of Design), Master in Cinema of the Real for the Università Roma Tre, for the Holden School and for the Rome and Palermo CSC, both in Rome and in Palermo. From 2019 she is the Art Director and Teaching Coordinator of the documentary course.