Gianni Minà died at the age of 84. The burial chamber for the journalist who died yesterday after a short illness will be opened tomorrow in the Capitol. According to the findings, the journalist will be honored from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“I’ve always been drawn to people who are able to swim against the current, even at the expense of isolation, loneliness. People who are able to tell stories, to show other visions. And they inevitably piqued my curiosity because, as my friend Eduardo Galeano said, able to tell the history of Latin America through ironic and seemingly unimportant stories, news stories, “the journey is made by walking”, you never know where these stories can guide you. It’s the beauty of life, all things considered.” Gianni MinaLord of journalism, more than sixty years of career, always exceptional, famous for his interviews with the great figures 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, at the Villa del Rosario clinic after a short heart condition.
Born in Turin in 1938, journalist, author, entertainer, presenter, documentary filmmaker, lover of Latin America, inventor of Blitz – who represented the “innovative rival” of Domenica on Rai2 in the 80s and hosted, among others, Federico Fellini, Eduardo De Filippo, Muhammad Ali, Robert De Niro , Jane Fonda, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Enzo Ferrari – Minà has done hundreds of reports and interviews for Rai and beyond. From the characters he met, he learned “to practice critical thinking, even complex thinking, and to breathe the freedom to be who you are and, above all, to show your own fragility”.
The best meeting? “The one with Muhammad Ali, the greatest of them all, because he broke a system, a culture. At the beginning of every interview, he always started with his ideas of salvation for black people and listed everything that black Americans failed to have in life: “Everyone has a country to fight for, everyone can fight for. Just us , only the Black Americas have no reference country.” I don’t feel like saying he lost.” The character you would have liked to meet without succeeding? “Of course Nelson Mandela, we chased each other: once I couldn’t, once he couldn’t. And I lost it, just as I missed the interview with Marcello Mastroianni, a kind and ironic person.” What would he have done if he hadn’t become a reporter? “I was born a journalist, I was, I am and I will be,” he emphasized a year ago on the occasion of the presentation of the documentary film “Gianni Minà – A life as a journalist” at Bifest. His famous encounters also include 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 shows him happily having 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 at Tuttosport, of which he was director from 1996 to 1998. He then joined Rai as a sports services agent, covering five Olympic Games, three World Cups and the major Games for the public network. of boxing. After his debut for Sprint magazine, he shot reports and documentaries for columns such as Tv7, Dribbling, Odeon. Everything makes show, Gulliver and was one of the founders of The Other Sunday. Since 1976 he has been producing sports reports as well as reports from Latin America for Tg2. He then worked on Mixer, made his writing and presenting debut on Blitz, and hosted Sunday Sports and the talk show Storie. He ran the literary journal Latinoamerica and all the Southern Hemispheres. He was a long-time contributor to newspapers such as Repubblica, l’Unità, Corriere della Sera and Manifesto and has written numerous books including Fidel’s Story (1988), A Continent Vanished (1995), Stories (1997), A Better World is Possible. From Porto Alegre Ideas for a future worth living in (2002), Politically incorrect (2007), My Ali (2014), That’s the way the world works. Conversations on Journalism, Power and Freedom (2017, with G. De Marzo), Story of a Latin American Boxer (2020) and I’ll Never Be an Ordinary Man (2021).
In 1981 President Pertini presented him with the Saint Vincent Award for Best Television Journalist. In 2007 he received the Camera Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Berlinale, the world’s most prestigious award for documentary filmmakers.
“We are losing an original, attentive and never banal journalist, a man who loved culture. Hello Gianni,” wrote the Minister of Culture on social media. Gennaro Sangiuliano.
“Goodbye to Gianni Minà, a true master of journalism and television – tweeted the Mayor of Rome, Robert Gualtieri -. Sharp, ironic, engaging, with a unique style and ability to narrate the world and the great characters of our time. A loving hug to the family and to all who loved him”.
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