Gianfranco Rosi: the slow documentary maker in a frantic world

Paris: If the regular recipe for success in the modern entertainment industry or on social media is being loud, attention seeking and a prolific creat...

Paris: If the regular recipe for success in the modern entertainment industry or on social media is being loud, attention-seeking and a prolific creator of "content", Italian filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi has carved out a career doing the exact opposite.

The work of the award-winning documentary producer is everything our contemporary culture is not: slow, nuanced, contemplative.

It's a strategy that has taken him to the pinnacle of European cinema -- he's won the top Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival and the Golden Bear in Berlin -- and has pushed the boundaries for non-fiction in the process.

"There were people saying 'How can you give a Golden Lion to someone that never directed an actor?'" he told AFP. "It's not important that division for me (between fiction and documentary). What I feel close to is cinema."

His latest work "Sotto le nuvole" ("Below the Clouds" in English), which releases internationally in France this week, is a portrait of the gritty Italian port of Naples.