Issue No.21 - Polo De’Marco Magazine Issue No.21 - International Edition | Page 245

experience.
11. You have been a Director of the Guild of
America and according to the Guild you are a
respected Philanthropist. What causes do you
support? And why is it so important to you?
Warner Brothers? And what is role of these two
companies?
I wanted to move on from the action genre and
diversify. I did not want to be known as just an
action film producer and I started experimenting
with projects that had the right demographics to be
successful - whether it was a fable, or a documentary.
9. Your film ‘Narc’ was a great success and was
nominated at the Sundance Film Festival and
it won the Special Prize Policier Award at the
Cognac Film Festival in France. What was it
like to have one of your films nominated and
win such accolades from your peers?
Since it was one of my action dramas, I was very
happy that I was starting to be acknowledged as a
producer of real serious films.
10. You have been working on a documentary
‘Sing a Song’ which is about the lives and times
of a singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte.
What was the reaction to his documentary and
do you feel this is very true to other artists?
After spending five years with Harry Belafonte,
traveling all around the world capturing a lot of
material for the documentary, the biggest high and
success that I had in the industry was being able to
showcase the film at some of the most serious film
festivals in the world including Sundance and Tribeca
to name a few. It was at that point that I noticed
that all of the work that I have done in the past was
starting to enhance my career. Not to mention it
was the best experience I’ve ever had professionally
to work with a famous artist, activist, and it was
through his project that opened up my eyes to many
things I would never have gotten the opportunity to
Growing up in a local community pharmacy, one
of the pre-requisites of being successful in your
community was to be able to contribute to the
community and give awareness to who you are. It
was very common for drugstores to support local
community activities. It was at that point in my
career that I made a pledge to myself that if I became
successful in the future, I would always put a small
part aside to help society. Specific causes that I
support include the Andrea Bocelli Foundation,
Children Against Cancer at the Staten Island
University Hospital, Children with Juvenile Diabetes.
12. You worked closely with music legend;
Andrea Bocelli. What was the collaboration
about and how did you feel to work with such a
legend?
One of the most incredible opportunities was to
work with Andrea Bocelli to produce and direct his
portion of the Asian Culture Carnival. World leaders
from all 48 countries in Asia as well as Australia and
Israel were present and more than 78,000 attended
the event, which was live broadcast in over 180
countries, reaching more than 1.7 billion viewers via
live TV and streaming services. The show, the largest
government-sponsored entertainment event ever
hosted in China, featured over 10,000 performers
throughout the evening-including Jackie Chan,
Lang Lang, Wang Leehom and Dimash Kudaibergen
who were dressed in costumes worth more than
$60 million. The incredible LED light curtain at the
show won the Guinness World Record for the largest
LED Light Curtain. The event received more than 1
million social likes, and empowered each nation to
showcase its traditional dances, songs, and costumes.
13. Lastly, you received a Knighthood as
Cavaliere at the Vatican City. What was that
like to receive an honour for your philanthropy
and the successes in film making? And did you
get the opportunity to meet the Pope?
Yes, I got to meet the Pope multiple times! It was
incredibly humbling to receive an award of that level.