THE INTERVIEW

January, 2025

LUCA CENTONI

DIRECTORS OF A & F – AMY & FOURTH OF JULY IN NYC

BEST WEB SERIES

Luca, tell us a bit more about yourself. Where does your desire to be a director come from?

It started a long time ago in June 1987 when I shot my first film in Australia “Discovering Queensland”

What is your background?

From there I started my first TV series “Dimensione Oceano” filmed in Iceland, Australia, Polynesia and Easter Island. It was distributed on VHS videocassettes throughout Italy and later on TV. Since then I have never stopped filming documentaries until today with the tenth TV series.

What were your references for A & F – Amy & Fourth of July in NYC?

We were at the end of the second season and after shooting the other episodes in Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago and Key West we thought that NYC was the natural geographical conclusion as long as we could tell it during the Fourth of July. New York is a character in its own right in the series. Explain to us your love for this city. NYC is different from the rest of America because it is a cosmopolitan city that represents the world. I wanted to tell it in a new way after it faced 9/11 and the pandemic to show its ability to be reborn every time without ever stopping.

Luca you won an Honorable Mention – BEST WEB SERIES at the RED Movie Awards, what does that mean to you?

For me and Amy Erin Johnson my actress and muse it means a lot especially if you will give us the chance to be awarded in person on the stage of your beautiful theater in the heart of the ancient Reims, world capital of Champagne.

How did you work with the actors?

Wonderfully because Amy Erin Johnson is a real professional actress who attended the “American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles” and together with me she won numerous Film Awards. In A & F however Amy is herself together with her dear and also very talented mother Josephine Johnson.

What was the biggest challenge in this shooting?

Without a doubt the speed and tight rhythms we had available in each episode and city. Two to four days can be fine but only if well prepared and especially if the weather is good otherwise it’s a big trouble.

Do you have an anecdote to share with us in particular?

Amy has an incredible resemblance to the character she played in the previous TV series we did “Templars”. Gudrid is the character, that is, an Icelandic Viking woman who actually lived 1000 years ago. The episode “Gudrid the Fair” so far has won about twenty film awards in various parts of the world.

You have directed more than 100 films how do you manage to renew yourself?

I do it by changing the format and therefore a different way of editing each time, always keeping the pace of the viewers attention high. I also observe what has not been told yet.

What is your next project?

“Amy’s Adventures: exploring the 7 wonders” which is a natural continuation of “A & F” with a new format and destinations. I am actually already preparing them for the various episodes, I can only anticipate that Italy and the Mediterranean area will be the heart of it.