CARLO MASSA PASSED AWAY
AZG Armenian Daily
31/08/2007
Carlo Massa, the director of the documentary film on the Armenian
genocide, entitled "Destinazione: il Nulla. Il testimone", passed
away prematurely last Sunday, August 19, after a long illness endured
with "allegria, coraggio e serenita" (joy, courage, and calm) as
it was said in his necrology. Carlo Massa produced this documentary
film, in 1996, in which he reconstructs Armin Wegner’s experience,
as a German official, in the Anatolian land during the First World
War. The film was made in close collaboration with Piero Kuciukian
(who brought Armin Wegner’s ashes to Armenia), Anna Maria Samuelli,
and Armin Wegner’s son Misha Wegner, and was first broadcast by RAI
(on RAISAT) in 2000. Carlo Massa studied political sciences; his
"laurea" dissertation bore the title: "RAI TV: Consensus Maker". He
entered at RAI where he worked as photographer, script-writer
and producer. He directed TV programmes with such great actors
and play-writers as Macario, Franca Rame, Dario Fo. Among his most
important TV programmes the following can be mentioned: "We women",
"One day at a magistrate’s court", and many others on art, culture,
travel, social and anthropological subjects. Since 1998 he was a member
of the international "Committee for the Garden of the Righteous",
centred in Milan, which aims at studying mechanisms that are at
the origin of genocides and the ways how to prevent them. Apart his
artistic talent and his important "witness" to the Armenian "destiny",
Carlo Massa was a very good friend and an agreeable interlocutor.