Is dead Gianni Minawas 84 years old. The burial chamber for the journalist who died yesterday after a short illness will be opened tomorrow in the Capitol. According to what is learned, the tribute to the journalist will be possible from 10 to 19.
“I have always been attracted to people capable of going against the tide, even at the cost of isolation, of loneliness. People capable of telling stories, of showing other visions. And they inevitably aroused my curiosity, because, as my friend Eduardo Galeano said, able to tell the story of Latin America through ironic and apparently unimportant stories, news stories, ‘the journey is made by going’, you never know where these stories can take you. It’s the beauty of life, all in all”. So it was said Gianni Minalord of journalism, over sixty years of career always out of the ordinary, famous for his interviews with the great personalities of current affairs, politics, music, entertainment and sport – the most famous sixteen-hour interview with Fidel Castro, in 1987 – died in Rome at the age of 84, in the Villa del Rosario clinic after a short heart disease.
Born in Turin in 1938, journalist, author, entertainer, presenter, documentary maker, lover of Latin America, inventor of Blitz – who in the 80s represented the ‘innovative rival’ of Domenica in on Rai2, hosting, among others, Federico Fellini, Eduardo De Filippo, Muhammad Ali, Robert De Niro, Jane Fonda, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Enzo Ferrari – Minà has made hundreds of reports and interviews for Rai and beyond. From the characters he met, he said, he had learned to “practice critical thinking, indeed, complex thinking, and to breathe the freedom of being as one is, above all showing one’s own fragility”.
The best meeting? “The one with Muhammad Ali, the greatest of all, because he broke a system, a culture. At the beginning of each interview, he always began with his ideas of redemption for the black people and enumerated everything that a black American was not managed to have in life: “Everyone has a land for which to fight, fight… everyone. Only we, only the blacks of America do not have a land of reference”. Unfortunately his battles did not produce major changes, but I don’t feel like saying he lost.” The character that he would have liked to meet without succeeding? “Certainly Nelson Mandela, we chased each other: once I couldn’t, once he couldn’t. And I lost him, just as I missed the interview with Marcello Mastroianni, a kind and ironic person”. What would he have done if he hadn’t become the journalist? “I was born a journalist, I was, I am and I will be”, he underlined a year ago, on the occasion of the presentation of the docufilm ‘Gianni Minà – A life as a journalist’ at the Bifest. Among his famous encounters, also those with Franco Battiato, Massimo Troisi and Pino Daniele. The relationship with Diego Armando Maradona and Pele is very strong. Iconic, among the many, remains the photo that portrays him joyfully at dinner in Rome with Muhammad Ali, Sergio Leone, Robert De Niro and Gabriel García Marquez.
He began his career in 1959 as a sports journalist for Tuttosport, of which he was director from 1996 to 1998. Then he joined Rai as a sports services collaborator, covering five Olympics, three World Cups and the most important matches for the public network. of boxing. After making his debut for the Sprint magazine, he made reportages and documentaries for columns such as Tv7, Dribbling, Odeon. Everything makes show, Gulliver and was one of the founders of the program The other Sunday. For Tg2, since 1976, he has produced not only sports reports but also reports from Latin America. Then he collaborated on Mixer, made his debut as an author and host of Blitz and hosted Sunday sports and the talk show Storie. He directed the literary magazine Latin America and all the southern hemispheres. Collaborator for years of newspapers such as Repubblica, l’Unità, Corriere della Sera and Manifesto, he wrote numerous books including Fidel’s story (1988), A disappeared continent (1995), Stories (1997), A better world is possible. From Porto Alegre ideas for a livable future (2002), Politically incorrect (2007), My Ali (2014), The world goes like this. Conversations on journalism, power and freedom (2017, with G. De Marzo), History of a Latin boxer (2020) and I will never be an ordinary man (2021).
In 1981 President Pertini presented him with the Saint Vincent Award as the best television journalist. In 2007 he received the Berlinale Kamera Award for his career, the most prestigious award in the world for documentary filmmakers.
“We lose an original, attentive and never banal journalist, a man who loved culture. Hi Gianni”, wrote the Minister of Culture on social media, Gennaro Sangiuliano.
“Goodbye to Gianni Minà, a true master of journalism and television – so the mayor of Rome tweeted, Robert Gualtieri -. Sharp, ironic, committed, with a unique style and ability to tell the world and the great characters of our time. An affectionate embrace to the family and to all those who loved him”.
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