Together with Gualtiero Jacopetti and Paolo Cavara, Franco Prosperi is responsible for the five documentaries that gave birth to the much-maligned subgenre known as "mondo film": Mondo Cane, Mondo Cane 2, La Donna nel Mondo, Africa Addio, and Addio Zio Tom (aka Uncle Tom). Defined as "exploitation shockumentary edited in an exquisite corpse style," mondo films tend to juxtapose subjects like sex, death, and mutilation with documentation of foreign cultures, which then resulted in mondo's creators being accused of racism.
Prosperi, the only member of the original three-man team who is still alive, is now 84. He lives in a villa outside a national park in Formia, between Rome and Naples, the same villa where he sought refuge when escaping Rome during World War II. It's also where, as a young boy, he discovered his passion for zoology, which first lead him to make nature documentaries, and later, some of the most controversial films in the history of cinema.
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