Artan MinarolliArtan Minarolli is the former head of the Albanian Center of Cinematography. Founded in 1997, the Center supports the development, production and international distribution of Albanian films. Artan has been involved in Albanian film production as a writer, producer and director since 1982. He worked as an assistant director to director Spartak Pecani on his film Incessant Words (Fjalë pa fund, 1986). His documentary For a Centimeter (Për një centimeter, 1990) was lauded at the International Sport Film Festival in Torino, Italy. Together with Petrik Ruka he co-directed the drama One Hundred Percent (Quind për Qind, 1993) and The Clay Bullet (Plumbi prej plasteline, 1994). In 2004 he directed the award-winning psychological drama The Moonless Night (Nata pa hënë), an Albanian-French coproduction that was in competition at Rotterdam. His most recent filmAlive (2009), which tells the contemporary story of a young Albanian university student who gets embroiled in an ancient, ancestral blood feud received critical attention at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Artan was director of the Albanian Film Archive prior to Elvira Diamanti and remains closely connected to the work of the archives. With Artan’s support, the Albanian Cinema Project was able to launch its first preservation project, which premiered in November 2012 at the Albanian Film Festival sponsored by the Albanian Center of Cinematography.
Artan passed away unexpectedly on December 31, 2015. He is greatly missed. |