ABOUT US
OUR HISTORY
“Pramana” cultural association was legally constituted in February 2021. Its mission is to generate a positive impact in our territory through the promotion of arts and culture.
The project was born from an idea of Simone, born and raised in Reggio Calabria. Like many Calabrians, at the age of 18 he moved to Milan to study, then to the Netherlands to work.
In Milan he had met Federica, a Sicilian, and Haejee, a Korean, and they were studying together at the university. All three struggled to find their place in an alienating, consumerist and elitist professional environment.
One day, something called Simone back and he decided to return to his homeland to take care of cultural projects.
He decided to involve Federica, who had studied in Tokyo, and Haejee, who grew up between Taiwan and Korea, to give life to a project he had long dreamed of: an Asian film festival, which would show the new voices of independent Eastern cinema and offer something different in a bleak cultural landscape like that of Reggio.
In 2022 we therefore organized our first major event in Reggio Calabria with our own strength, which had a good response from the city.
Pramana Asian Film Festival has now reached its second edition and aspires to grow and become a reference point for the new Eastern cinema in Southern Italy.
WHY IN CALABRIA?
We started this path because we want to organize our projects in the way we like it, proposing them to everybody. We are in love with cinema, music, visual arts, photography, architecture, cooking, linguistics, philosophy and nature.
We believe in culture as a form of social aggregation beyond any distinction. We don’t like to see elite events with any connection with the real world. We want to bring everybody together in front of the beauty of the world propose a model of a different society.
We started working in the Italian cultural world and we have touched the problems rooted in the system: the great “mainstream” cultural events of Southern Italy, in particular, are characterized by old age, self-referentiality, contamination with politics and neoliberal dynamics that seem to have civil society forgotten. An underground dimension is almost entirely missing, apart from some initiatives of resistant visionaries who carry out a real battle against the system.
We do not want to hide behind the mantra “in Calabria there is nothing” and follow all those who have gone away to study and work.
We respect the choice of those who left looking for a different life, but we strongly feel the necessity to be active in the territory to help making it thrive. We want to show to the world that Calabria is not only a place for rhetoric and pietism, but a land of unique opportunities, still partially uncontaminated by the logics of unconditioned progress and consumerism.
OUR TEAM
Pramana is an open cultural organization that work with the help of collaborators and professional from all over the world.
The core team is composed by four young film and art lovers, who studied together and decided to commit into this cultural project in Calabria.
SIMONE COLISTRA – Founder and Artistic Director
Born and raised in Reggio Calabria, he graduated in Management for Arts, Culture and Events in Milan. After work experiences in Sweden and The Netherlands, he came back to Calabria to work as Production Coordinator for La Guarimba International Film Festival, where he and manages different cultural projects. He has collaborated as author for the online magazine Cinefacts.it.
FEDERICA BUCCHERI – Cultural Programming
Born and raised in Sicily, she graduated from a MSc in Arts Management in Milan after completing her studies in Japan. After building her early career in events management in Italy, she moved to Paris, where she now lives and works as an Art Advisors for a French online art gallery. In her free time, she is an amateur photographer exploring the relationships between humans and architecture.
HAEJEE PARK – Cultural Programming
Born and raised across Asia, she studied business administration and art management in Boston and Milan. After working in the U.S., pacific, Europe, and Asia, she is committed to spread love through culture, starting from sharing her culture from Korea. She is the founder and the director of the cultural brand, OMMANA. She also practices her artistic endeavors through her creative brand, @glutinous_vibe.
GIORGIA MEGLIOLA – Project Manager
Born in Turin, based in Rome she works as Project Manager and consultant in participative, transformative and co-design processes and development of organizations and territories, working with cultural and creative realities. She graduated in Milan in Arts Management and Marketing for Creative Sectors, and in Cultural Tourism in Turin. She collaborated as PM in the 2023 edition of TEDxRoma.
COLLABORATORS
GIADA PUCCINELLI: Illustrations
GIANLUCA ARIELLO: Web Design
RUGGERO ANASTASIO: Social Media
SARA DE GIORGI: Front Office
STEFANO COLISTRA: Translations and subtitles
VALERIA WEERASINGHE
Programmazione