Abel Ferrara

• An American director born in New York in 1951.

  Born in the Bronx, at first Abel Ferrara operated under a pseudonym, Super 8 camera in hand, as a duo with Nicholas St. John writing scripts. Later turning to feature films, his impact has marked the genre film: from the offbeat thriller Driller Killer (1979); to the radical rape & revenge film, Ms. 45; to the self-reflexive vampire movie, The Addiction. In 1990, Ferrara was The King of New York, the indie king of a Big Apple populated by marginal figures and the likes of Bad Lieutenant. In 2000, he emigrated to Europe, from Paris to Rome, on the trail of Pasolini (2014). His films have more recently been honed down to autobiographies and documentaries, with Willem Dafoe as his alter ego (Tommaso, 2019). With wins at the Viennale 2020, his resolutely personal body of work probes our states of awareness – altered, on high alert, poor, or political… His crepuscular fictions are aligned with this period of pandemic, the nursey of his latest project: Zeroes and Ones, a war film starring Ethan Hawke, which received the Leopard for best direction at the Locarno International Film Festival 2021. His next film, Padre Pio, will be released in 2022. 

• Nine Lives of a Wet Pussy (1976) – Driller Killer (1979) – Ms .45 (1981) – Fear City (1984) – China Girl (1987) – Cat Chaser (1989) – The King of New York (1990) – Bad Lieutenant (1992) – Body Snatchers (1993) – Snake Eyes (1993) – The Addiction (1995) – The Funeral (1996) – The Blackout (1997) – New Rose Hotel (1998) – Christmas (2001) – Mary (2005) – Go Go Tales (2007) – Chelsea Hotel (2008) – Napoli, Napoli, Napoli (2009) – Mulberry St. (2010) – 4 : 44 - Last Day on Earth (2011) –Welcome to New York (2014) – Pasolini (2014) – Alive in France (2017) – Piazza Vittorio (2017) – Tommaso (2019) – Siberia (2020) – Sportin'Life (2020) – Zeros and Ones (2021) – Padre Pio (2022)