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Background:
Francesco Carrozzini grew up contained in the rarefied world of Vogue Italia — not simply observing it, however dwelling it. As the son of Franca Sozzani, the journal’s legendary editor-in-chief, vogue wasn’t simply half of his environment, it was a language he was uncovered to on a regular basis.
He turned a photographer and filmmaker, nevertheless it was solely later that he turned the digital camera in direction of probably the most private and sophisticated topic in his life: his relationship together with his mom. The documentary Franca: Chaos and Creation premiered in Venice simply earlier than her passing in 2016 following a battle with lung most cancers.
“When I asked her to take a look at the first cut of the film, she said, ‘This is the most mediocre thing I’ve ever seen. Do yourself a favor and find a point of view.’ That opened my eyes on the importance of always trying to find a point of view,” Carrozzini recollects. “In a regular relationship between mother and son, that might have been excruciating. In ours, it wasn’t, because we treated each other like friends.”
Since Franca’s passing, Carrozzini has been working to rework reminiscence into that means. He co-founded the Franca Fund for Preventive Genomics — an initiative advancing genomic screening to stop the illness that took his mom’s life.
BoF founder and CEO Imran Amed met Carrozzini in Doha, Qatar, the place final weekend he hosted the fund’s first-ever gala they usually spoke about what it means to honour somebody not by preserving their legacy, however by evolving it.
Key Insights:
- Growing up inside Vogue Italia formed Carrozzini’s eye and his expectations of “normal”. He recollects going to the places of work, and making his personal magazines. “This was a time before computers so they were cutting up pictures and there was spray glue. […] That’s how magazines were made. I would go and do the same,” he says. “That was my special big extended family, because my mother’s job was her life.”
- Beyond the movie itself, Carrozzini shared that it was the end-of-life collaboration that mattered probably the most. “The actual big stories were those last months of our relationship, finishing the film and then screening it in Venice,” he says. “All of a sudden the lights turn on and everyone’s crying because some people know, some people don’t, but we look at each other and we’re like, ‘This is sort of like our last big moment together.’”
- Carrozzini clearly distinguishes tribute from true legacy. “Memory and legacy often get confused. Just remembering someone feels like you’re carrying their legacy, but it’s not. I really wanted something meaningful, as an act of love, taking something personal and making it collective.” That impulse led Carrozzini to genomics analysis with Harvard geneticist Dr Robert Green, backing pioneering newborn-genome research and accelerating grants.