Sergio Borelli (4 May 1923 – 17 September 2021) was an Italian journalist. He started his career in post-WWII Milan, at the socialist newspaper
L'Avanti. In 1949 he was awarded a
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
Fellowship that sent him to London to learn at the local newspapers and then to the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
Foreign Dept. From London he wrote for a number of newspapers, among them Paese Sera, L'Avanti, Milano Sera. In 1952 he returned to Milan and - after collaborating with the weeklies L'Illustrazione Italiana and Tempo Illustrato - in 1956 joined the newly founded daily Il Giorno. There he was a foreign correspondent.
Career
Interests
At that time his major interests were the two great revolutions: Soviet Socialism and China's Communism. He was offered the position of Moscow correspondent for
Il Giorno; he was the first Italian correspondent there from an independent newspaper. Back to Italy three years later, he continued working as foreign correspondent and, among other things, covered the
Algerian War
The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...
, the first commercial round-the-world flight,
Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and Premier of the Soviet Union, chairm ...
's memorable 1959 trip to the U.S., and the 1965 U.S. invasion of Santo Domingo.
Television
In 1965, he left the newspapers for television, where he developed documentaries and reportage for the News Department of
RAI
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
, the Italian State's TV network. He experimented with different TV formats in collaboration at RAI. In 1966, Borelli made "Il Festival de Dakar", a 50-minute documentary of Premier Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres (FESMAN) or
World Festival of Black Arts
The World Festival of Black Arts (French: Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres), also known as FESMAN, is a month-long culture and arts festival that takes place in Africa. The festival features poetry, sculpture, painting, music, cinema, theatre, f ...
, in Dakar, 1966.
International
Labeled as politically unreliable for his critical stances, he was removed from the News Department and given a position at
Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international Television, Radio-broadcasting and Web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with the ...
, an international TV competition. There, Borelli connected with peers working in European TV stations who, like him, were exploring new formats. In 1973 at the Prix Italia held in Venice, Sergio and a small group of professionals from public television met with
Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer (English pronunciation: , ; 14 August 1910 – 19 August 1995) was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist, acoustician and founder of Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC). His innov ...
, of INA
Institut National de l'Audiovisuel
The (abbrev. INA), () is a repository of all French radio and television audiovisual archives. Additionally it provides free access to archives of countries such as Afghanistan and Cambodia. It has its headquarters in Bry-sur-Marne.
Since 200 ...
and Director of the Research Department of
ORTF, France and founded
CIRCOM - International Cooperative for Research and Action on the Field of Communication. Sergio Borelli was the President of CIRCOM from 1983 to 1989.
Founder
In 1977 invited by Howard Klein of the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
, Sergio and others - among them James Day of
WNET
WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as "Thirteen" (stylized as "THIRTEEN"), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the ...
, Russell Connor of the
TV Lab at Thirteen/WNET, Fred Barzyk of
WGBH-TV
WGBH-TV (channel 2), branded on-air as GBH or GBH 2 since 2020, is the primary PBS member television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship property of the WGBH Educational Foundation, which also owns Boston's sec ...
,
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik (; July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video art. He is credited with the first use (1974) of the term "electronic super hi ...
and
Bill Viola
Bill Viola ( , ; born 1951) is an American contemporary video artist whose artistic expression depends upon electronic, sound, and image technology in new media. His works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human experiences such as birth, d ...
- founded INPUT (
International Public Television Screening Conference
International Public Television Screening Conference (INPUT) is an international public television organization dedicated to television as public service and in the public interest. INPUT is dedicated to promoting access to the most honest, innovat ...
).
From 1990 on, retired from RAI, he dedicated himself full-time to INPUT. Borelli was the International Program Coordinator, but was better known for his informal role of "agent provocateur". He defended the non-competitive nature of the conference and worked hard to promote diversity. Up to his 87th birthday he conducted workshops with filmmakers in Asia and Africa and followed his two greatest passions: traveling and talking to as many people as possible.
Documentary
"The House He Built" documentary film of Sergio Borelli's life and wunderkammer home in Rome is available at
Death
Borelli died on 17 September 2021, at the age of 98.
[{{cite web , title=Sergio, great traveler and journalist, has left for the last journey of his life. We'll miss you a lot. , url=https://www.facebook.com/TheHouseHeBuilt/posts/pfbid02H7VAwnvKn96yKrz6ubtFvPPwcgsssYrTSgEzasxC6hJcKm5d2a9HXUzshP3K6Gpdl , website=The House He Built on Facebook , access-date=19 January 2023]
Awards
In 1962, Borelli was awarded The
Premiolino
The Premiolino is the oldest
and one of the most important
Italian journalism awards. It is made annually to six journalists from print media and television for their career achievements and their contributions to the freedom of the press.
His ...
, the oldest and most prestigious Italian journalism award, for his reporting from Algers. It is made annually to six journalists from print media and television for their career achievements and their contributions to the freedom of the press. Years later, for his work defending public TV, he was named an Honorary Member of the US Congress.
References
{{Reflist
{{authority control
{{DEFAULTSORT:Borelli, Sergio
1923 births
2021 deaths
Italian journalists
Italian male journalists