{{Short description|Italian-Canadian film director and screenwriter}} '''Paul Tana''' (born in [[Ancona]], January 8, 1947) is an Italian-Canadian film director and screenwriter.<ref>Paul De Léan, "Montreal director Tana rolls the dice with latest effort, La Sarrasine". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', February 18, 1992.</ref> He is most noted for his 1992 film ''[[The Saracen Woman]] (La Sarrasine)'', which received ten [[Genie Award]] nominations at the [[13th Genie Awards]] in 1992 including a nomination for Tana in the [[Canadian Screen Award for Best Screenplay|Best Original Screenplay]] category.<ref>H. J. Kirchhoff, "French-Canadian films steal Genie show: Cronenberg's Naked Lunch leads the pack with 11 nominations". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', October 14, 1992.</ref>
Born in [[Ancona]], [[Marche]], Italy, Tana emigrated to Canada with his family in childhood.<ref>Janis L. Pallister, ''The Cinema of Québec: Masters in Their Own House''. [[Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]], 1995. {{ISBN|9780838635629}}. p. 419.</ref> He studied literature at the [[Université du Québec à Montréal]] before joining the Association Coopérative des Productions Audio-Visuelles,<ref>Fuad Alnirabie and Michael Vesia, [https://offscreen.com/view/tana "Paul Tana and the Italian immigrant experience in Canada"]. ''Offscreen'', Volume 5, Issue 1 / January 2001.</ref> for whom he made a number of short films before releasing his debut feature film, ''Day by Day (Les grands enfants)'', in 1980.
His 1985 documentary film ''[[Caffè Italia, Montréal]]'' won the [[Prix Luc-Perreault|Prix L.-E.-Ouimet-Molson]] from the Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma.<ref>Bruce Bailey, "Film made in Montreal takes prize". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', January 29, 1986.</ref> He followed up with the narrative feature films ''La Sarrasine'' in 1992,<ref name=clashes>"La Sarrasine shows that cultural clashes are not something new". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', February 16, 1992.</ref> and ''[[Mr. Aiello]] (La Déroute)'' in 1998.<ref>"Sweet 16: The 16th Rendez-vous de Cinema Quebecois embraces the province's multicultural character for the first time". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', February 20, 1998.</ref> This trilogy was made possible thanks to the close collaboration and friendship with historian and screenwriter Bruno Ramirez. with whom he wrote the three films just mentioned.
Since ''Mr. Aiello'', Tana has concentrated primarily on documentary films, most notably the ''Ricordato di noi'' project to recover lost footage of Montreal's Italian community newsmagazine television series ''Teledomenica''.<ref>Carole Gagliardi, "Teledomenica's memories". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', July 3, 2005.</ref>
"Ricordati di noi" (souviens toi de nous, edited by the director, who is also a friend and pupil Giovanni Princigalli)<ref>Giovanni Princigalli Bari e Montreal e ritorno, di nuovo a casa con il "maestro Paul Tana"</ref> is part of a trilogy of short documentaries, also on Italian emigration, consisting of: ''Souviens-toi de nous'' in 2008, ''Marguerita'' in 2015 and ''Le figuier'' in 2018.
In addition to Giovanni Princigalli, he formed a partnership with Roberto Zorfini, another Italian director who had moved to Montreal, producing in 2019 two works with them together with the Italian Cultural Institute in Montreal.<ref>[https://iicmontreal.esteri.it/en/gli%20eventi/calendario/3-ritratti-d-italomontrealesi-di%200-2/ 3 Portraits of italomontrealesi of yesterday and today, Paul Tana, Gianni and Roberto Princigalli Zorfini show with film images a new page of “Caffè Italia” at the Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma 2019]</ref>
His latest documentary ''Fellini premières fois'' tells the story of how Federico Fellini was seen and discovered by Quebec filmmakers and film professionals.
==Filmography== *''Day by Day (Les grands enfants)'' - 1980 *''[[Caffè Italia, Montréal]]'' - 1985 *''Marchand de jouets'' - 1988 *''[[The Saracen Woman]] (La Sarrasine)'' - 1992 *''[[Mr. Aiello]] (La Déroute)'' - 1998 *''Parole d’artistes'' - 2003 *''Souviens-toi de nous'' - 2008 *''Marguerita'' - 2015 *''Le figuier'' - 2018 *''Fellini premières fois'' - 2020
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|0848936}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tana, Paul}} [[Category:1947 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:20th-century Canadian screenwriters]] [[Category:20th-century Canadian male writers]] [[Category:21st-century Canadian screenwriters]] [[Category:21st-century Canadian male writers]] [[Category:Canadian male screenwriters]] [[Category:Canadian documentary film directors]] [[Category:Film directors from Montreal]] [[Category:Italian emigrants to Canada]] [[Category:People from Ancona]] [[Category:Université du Québec à Montréal alumni]] [[Category:Screenwriters from Montreal]]