Sergio Zavoli
Member of the Senate of the Republic
In office
30 May 2001 – 22 March 2018
ConstituencyEmilia-Romagna (2001–2013)
Campania (2013–2018)
Personal details
Born(1923-09-21)21 September 1923
Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, Kingdom of Italy
Died4 August 2020(2020-08-04) (aged 96)
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Political partyDS (2004–2007)
PD (2007–2018)
ProfessionPolitician, journalist

Sergio Wolmar Zavoli (21 September 1923 – 4 August 2020) was an Italian broadcast journalist and politician.

Early life and education

Zavoli was born in Ravenna on 21 September 1923.[1] He attended the classical lyceum in Rimini,[2] graduating in 1943.[3] He dreamed of becoming a poet or writer.[4]

Journalism

Zavoli's journalistic career began as a football radio commentator in 1945. He collaborated in the production of a twice-daily news bulletin broadcast to Rimini's central square,[1] the predecessor of the daily summer radio programme broadcast along Rimini's beaches.[1][2] In particular, Zavoli reported on Rimini FC's matches.[1]

In 1947, Zavoli was scouted for RAI, the Italian state broadcasting company, by Vittorio Veltroni,[1][5] who led RAI's radio commentary editorial team. He made his first debut on national radio on 15 February 1948 at a Roma–Fiorentina match, substituting an indisposed commentator.[1]

Zavoli's early documentaries included Scartamento ridotto (1952),[1] exploring local views about the replacement of the steam engine on the Rimini–Novafeltria railway with oil-powered railcars.[6] His Notturno a Cnosso (1953), produced with Giovanni Battista Angioletti, documented a nocturnal tourist itinerary in Crete, including the island's mythology and history; the documentary won the 1953 Prix Italia.[7] Zavoli won a second Prix Italia in 1958 for Clausura (1957), exploring support and criticism for enclosed nuns, which included interviews through the grates of their enclosures.[8] The documentary was translated into six languages, and its footage reused in a 2001 television series.[5][9]

In the 1960s, Zavoli moved to television.[5] In 1962, Zavoli inaugurated the first transmission of Il processo alla tappa , a popular series of sports programmes dedicated to the Giro d'Italia;[1][10] Zavoli had created a similar programme on radio in 1958.[5] His documentary I giardini di Abele (1969) reported from inside a psychiatric hospital in Gorizia.[5] While making documentaries on current affairs, he also produced notable historical investigative documentaries, including Nascita di una dittatura (1972),[10] a six-part series documenting the birth of Fascist Italy which won the Saint-Vincent Prize,[5][11] and La notte della Repubblica (1989–90), documenting the Years of Lead.[1]

Alongside those of Cesare Zavattini, Zavoli's documentaries were considered part of a new movement in Italian documentaries which were broadcast from the field rather than reshot in studios. Zavoli paid particular attention to platforming voices directly.[5]

From 1976 to 1980, Zavoli was director of news programming on RAI's Radio 1, after which he became President of the RAI until 1986.[1][12]

In 1993, Zavoli became the founding president of San Marino's state broadcaster, San Marino RTV.[2] He directed Il Mattino, a daily newspaper in Naples, between 1993 and 1994.[5] In 2001, Zavoli's series Diario di un cronista retold the story of his most significant investigative documentaries in fifty-five episodes.[5]

In 1986, he was awarded an honorary degree in literature by the University of Urbino.[5] On 26 March 2007, for the "extraordinary contribution made to the cause of Italian journalism", the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Rome Tor Vergata awarded him an honorary degree in specialist publishing, multimedia communication and journalism.[13] In 2007, he became President of the Journalism School of the University of Salerno.[5]

Political career

In 2001, he was elected Senator for the Democrats of the Left, and was reelected for the Olive Tree in 2006 and for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2013.[1] Zavagli served as Chairman of the RAI Supervision Commission from 4 February 2009 until 14 March 2013, succeeded by Roberto Fico.[5][14] From 18 September 2013 to 22 March 2018, he was President of the Commission for the Library and Historical Archives of the Senate of the Republic.[5]

Novels

In 1981, he published his first book, Socialista di Dio, which won the Bancarella Award.[12] In 2011, he published the autobiographical novel Il ragazzo che io fui.[1]

Personal life

Zavoli was married to Alessandra, with whom he had one daughter, Valentina.[15] He was made an honorary citizen of Rimini on 30 September 1972, which the mayor felt necessary to remedy "an injustice towards Zavoli himself and those who had believed him to be from Rimini".[16] Zavoli was honorary president of the city's Prize for Young Poetry.[4]

Zavoli was a close friend of Riminese film director Federico Fellini,[17] with whom he would communicate frequently by telephone.[1] For Fellini's funeral on 4 November 1993,[18] Zavoli edited footage he shot into a historical archive.[1] Zavoli was also a close friend of Tonino Guerra.[16][19]

In his later years, Zavoli lived in a villa in Monte Porzio Catone. In December 2012, aged 89, he was attacked by four burglars.[20]

Death

Zavoli died in Rome on 4 August 2020, aged 96.[21] Among those expressing public condolences were Sergio Mattarella, President of Italy, Stefano Bonaccini, President of Emilia-Romagna, the Diocese of Rimini, and municipal and provincial mayors.[22]

Zavoli's funeral was held at San Salvatore in Lauro in Rome, after which he was transported to Rimini, where a funeral chapel had been installed for public mourning in the Amintore Galli Theatre.[23] In accordance with his wishes,[16] on 8 August 2020, Zavoli was buried a few steps from Fellini and his wife, Giulietta Masina, in Rimini's civic cemetery,[24] in a ceremony presided by the diocesan bishop.[15]

Legacy

Il ragazzo e la città (2023), a concert-show written and directed by Massimo Roccaforte, was performed at the Amintore Galli Theatre on the occasion of the centenary of Zavoli's birth.[25][17] Il sole tramonta alle spalle (2023), a film by Mauro Bartoli featuring two unpublished interviews with Zavoli, was also screened at Rimini's Fulgor Cinema for the centenary.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Colasanto, Lina (5 August 2020). "Addio a Sergio Zavoli, l'intellettuale della tv grande amico di Fellini" [Goodbye to Sergio Zavoli, the TV intellectual who was a great friend of Fellini]. RiminiToday (in Italian). Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 ""Il sole tramonta alle spalle", un film per ricordare Sergio Zavoli a cent'anni dalla nascita" [“The sun sets behind us”: A film to remember Sergio Zavoli a hundred years after his birth]. RiminiToday (in Italian). 14 September 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  3. ↑ "La nostra storia" [Our history]. Liceo Giulio Cesare–Manara Valgimigli. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Premio Poesia, Sergio Zavoli: "Ai giovani dobbiamo tolleranza e scuse solenni"" [Poetry Prize. Sergio Zavoli: "We owe young people tolerance and a solemn apology"]. RiminiToday (in Italian). 12 April 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "La biografia di Sergio Zavoli" [The biography of Sergio Zavoli]. Archive of the President of the Republic (in Italian). Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  6. ↑ "Scartamento ridotto" [Narrow gauge]. Rai Teche (in Italian). 20 February 1952. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  7. ↑ "Notturno a Cnosso" [Night in Knossos]. Rai Teche (in Italian). 21 October 1953. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  8. ↑ "Clausura" [Enclosure]. Rai Teche (in Italian). 23 December 1957. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  9. ↑ "Intervista a Zavoli" [Interview with Zavoli]. Historic Archive of the President of the Republic (in Italian). 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  10. 1 2 ""Per un'Italia migliore": incontro con il senatore Sergio Zavoli" ["For a better Italy": Meeting with Senator Sergio Zavoli]. RiminiToday (in Italian). 18 April 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  11. ↑ "Nascita di una dittatura" [Birth of a dictatorship]. RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  12. 1 2 PREMIO BANCARELLA ALBO D’ORO
  13. ↑ Sergio Zavoli, una lunga carriera tra giornalismo e politica
  14. ↑ Vigilanza Rai, Zavoli presidente "Buon segnale, adesso il cda"
  15. 1 2 "Addio a Zavoli, tumulato nel cimitero della sua città: "Un grande italiano, un figlio di Rimini"" [Farewell to Zavoli, buried in the cemetery of his city: "A great Italian, a son of Rimini"]. RiminiToday (in Italian). 8 August 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  16. 1 2 3 "L'ultimo desiderio di Zavoli: "Tornare a Rimini e riposare accanto a Federico". Le foto storiche" [Zavoli's last wish: "To return to Rimini and rest next to Federico". Historical photos.]. RiminiToday (in Italian). 5 August 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  17. 1 2 "La città rende omaggio allo scrittore e giornalista Sergio Zavoli: le iniziative in programma" [The city pays homage to the writer and journalist Sergio Zavoli: The planned initiatives]. RiminiToday (in Italian). 12 September 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  18. ↑ "I funerali di Fellini. Le immagini inedite ritrovate nell'archivio di Marco Pesaresi" [Fellini's funeral: The unpublished images found in Marco Pesaresi's archive]. Il Resto del Carlino (in Italian). 21 October 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  19. ↑ "Santarcangelo saluta Tonino Guerra" [Santarcangelo salutes Tonino Guerra]. RiminiToday (in Italian). 24 March 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  20. ↑ "Rapinato e picchiato nella sua villa Sergio Zavoli" [Sergio Zavoli robbed and beaten in his villa]. RiminiToday (in Italian). 4 December 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  21. ↑ Addio a Sergio Zavoli, l'intellettuale della televisione (in Italian)
  22. ↑ "Il presidente Mattarella ricorda Sergio Zavoli. Tanti i messaggi di cordoglio da Bonaccini a Petitti" [President Mattarella remembers Sergio Zavoli: Many messages of condolence from Bonaccini to Petitti]. RiminiToday (in Italian). 5 August 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  23. ↑ "Sergio Zavoli è tornato nella sua Rimini, Gnassi: "Tanto dolore durante le esequie a Roma"" [Sergio Zavoli returned to his Rimini. Gnassi: "So much pain during the funeral in Rome"]. RiminiToday (in Italian). 7 August 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  24. ↑ "Sergio Zavoli: famiglia, amici e amministrazione comunale lo ricordano a un mese dalla scomparsa" [Sergio Zavoli: Family, friends, and the municipal government remember him a month after his death]. RiminiToday (in Italian). 21 September 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  25. ↑ "La città rende onore a Sergio Zavoli, al Fulgor lo spettacolo a 100 anni dall'anniversario della nascita" [The city honours Sergio Zavoli, with the show at Fulgor 100 years after the anniversary of his birth]. RiminiToday (in Italian). 22 September 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
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