Gualtiero Jacopetti

“What the camera sees it films pitilessly, without sympathy, without taking sides,” it begins. “This film only says farewell to the old Africa and gives the world a picture of its agony.” As colonialism collapsed in 1960s Africa, Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi rushed to the Dark Continent to record the horrifying battle for control that followed. Here was a world now ruled by rebels and refugees, plunderers and poachers, mercenaries and murderers, a land suddenly aflame with brutality, racism and unspeakable slaughter. At the risk of their own lives, the filmmakers’ cameras captured it all. The result is a daring and disturbing work that ranks among the greatest achievements in documentary cinema, an experience that remains as shocking – and shockingly relevant – as it was 40 years ago. This is AFRICA BLOOD AND GUTS!Read More »

from allmovie.com

This concise documentary, available only in Blue Underground’s Mondo Cane Collection box set, offers unique insight into an area of cinema with which few historians would ever bother. It does so by telling the story of Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi, a pair of filmmakers whose desire to create an “anti-documentary” that explored hidden truths led to the creation of the exploitation film world’s most notorious bastard child — the “mondo” film. Any good documentary lives or dies by its subject matter, and director David Gregory hits pay dirt with his subjects here — Jacopetti and Prosperi are intelligent, feisty, and compelling storytellers. Read More »

Synopsis:
IT STARTS WHERE MONDO CANE LEFT OFF!
The official sequel to the original shockumentary, presenting new and bizarre behavior from around the world, including cruelty, graphic gore, and strange rituals.Read More »

Synopsis:
Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco E. Prosperi, best-known for the groundbreaking shockumentary Mondo Cane, directed this bizarre and shocking look at slavery in America. Set in the deep South prior to the Civil War, Zio Tom finds Jacopetti and Prosperi travelling back in time aboard a helicopter to investigate the nuts and bolts of slavery as it happened in the United States prior to abolition. Along the way, the filmmakers go aboard a slave ship as frightened Africans are brought to America under inhuman conditions; they witness the dangerous and degrading process by which slaves were made ready for market; and they visit a “breeding farm” for slaves after laws prohibit the importation of slaves from abroad. Read More »

Synopsis:
A documentary that shocked many viewers at the time of its release, this film presents scenes from across the globe that feature strange rituals. Animal slaughter and bizarre religious ceremonies are among the many events in the movie, which also exhibits cuisine that is highly unconventional to the Western palate. The collage-like production covers a lot of ground, both literally and figuratively, in depicting unusual cultural practices from around the world.Read More »