Mondo film

Although earlier films such as Alessandro Blasetti's Europe by Night (1959) and (World by Night, 1960) may be considered examples of the genre, the origins of the mondo documentary are generally traced to the 1962 Italian film Mondo Cane (''A Dog's World''—a mild Italian profanity) by Paolo Cavara, Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi which was a commercial success. Documentary films imitating Mondo Cane in the 1960s often included the term in their titles, even if they were in English; examples include Mondo Bizarro, Mondo Daytona, Mondo Mod, Mondo Infame and Mondo Hollywood. Films outside the genre followed suit: Mondo Trasho, Mondo Weirdo: A Trip to Paranoia Paradise, Mondo Keyhole and Mondo Brutale (a German release of Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left) title themselves mondo, although none are mondo documentaries. Later in the decade, this naming convention began to fall out of favour and fewer mondo films identified themselves as such in their titles. Mondo films in the 21st century feature gore, exemplified by the Faces of Gore and Traces of Death series. There is less fake footage, and many use news footage of accidents from East Asia. The late 2010s saw another resurgence, beginning with the Bootleg Death Tape series and Faces of Dying series from filmmaker Dustin Ferguson, which both involved various independent directors from around the world. In 2015 a new take on the Mondo shockumentary genre came via a short film titled Cibo Di Violenza at a run time of 12 minutes, this film is listed as Cibo Di Violenza in Italian and translated as food of violence in English, both the director Bazz Hancher and co-writer Mike Lima are English. A number of films have parodied the genre. Examples include Ricardo Fratelli's Mondo Ford, ''Mr. Mike's Mondo Video by Saturday Night Live''s Michael O'Donoghue, and Is There Sex After Death? by Jeanne and Alan Abel. Mondo Beyondo spoofed the films' approach to titling, but was a parody of satellite television. == Films ==

The original mondo film series was the Mondo Cane series by Gualtiero Jacopetti, Paolo Cavara, and Franco Prosperi. When this type of film proved successful, many imitators followed. The pair's Mondo candido (1975) is not a mondo film; the title was imposed on them by the studio, who wished to cash in on their earlier successes. The film is a retelling of Voltaire's novel, Candide. In the late 1980s, Stelvio Massi (a.k.a. Max Steele) made two spin-offs of the original Mondo Cane series, known as Mondo Cane 3 and Mondo Cane 4 on video. In 1969, brothers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni began to make a series of their own mondo films until the early 1980s. They made five films in all, tying Jacopetti and Prosperi as the most prolific mondo film producers. Each film examines brutal and bizarre behavior on the African continent. Their films are considered some of the most graphic mondo films ever made. Antonio Climati, cinematographer to Prosperi and Jacopetti in many mondo films, joined Mario Morra in 1974 to produce their own string of mondo films, known as the "Savage Trilogy". Prosperi also produced the films. Climati and Morra were known for staging scenes. The 1978 Faces of Death popularized a mondo style known as "death films", which depicted humans or animals dying in graphic ways. Uwe Schier bought the rights to the Mondo Cane and Faces of Death films and released his own entries in both series, consisting largely of footage lifted from other mondo films. Faces of Death V draws heavily on Death Scenes; Faces of Death VI consists almost entirely of Days of Fury and Mondo Cane IV (not to be confused with ''Mondo Cane 2000, l'Incredibile'', Schier's Mondo Cane IV is in fact the fifth film in the series) lifts from other films (including Death Scenes and Death Faces IV). In 1993, Hurricane Pictures edited a mix of scenes featured in Addio ultimo uomo and Shocking Africa, labeling it the "fifth chapter" of the saga (Teil V in German). Several imitators followed the Faces of Death series; many used (or were composed entirely of) footage from other mondo films. Other mondo films and movies influenced by the genre were released. == See also ==