Actor

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Sergio Wolmar Zavoli (21 September 1923 – 4 August 2020) was an Italian sports and documentary journalist and politician.

Born in Ravenna and raised in Rimini, Zavoli joined RAI, Italy's state broadcaster, as a sports radio journalist in 1947. He won two Prix Italia awards for his travel documentary Notturno a Cnosso (1953) and Clausura (1957), which included interviews with enclosed nuns. In 1962, he inaugurated the first transmission of Il processo alla tappa, a popular series of sports programmes dedicated to the Giro d'Italia. Zavoli's notable historical documentaries included Nascita di una dittatura (1972), which won the Saint-Vincent Prize, and La notte della Repubblica (1989–90), which documented the Years of Lead. Zavoli served as RAI's president between 1980 and 1986.

In the 2001 general election, Zavoli was elected senator for the Democrats of the Left, and was reelected for the Olive Tree and Democratic Party in subsequent elections until his retirement at the 2018 general election. Between 2009 and 2013, he served as Chairman of the RAI Supervisory Commission. Zavoli died in Rome on 4 August 2020, aged 96, and was laid to rest near Riminese filmmaker Federico Fellini, a close friend, in the Monumental Cemetery of Rimini.

Alongside his journalism and political career, Zavoli published several fictional and non-fictional books. His documentaries were notable for platforming voices directly, and their respectful portrayal of political opponents.

Early life and career

Zavoli was born in Ravenna on 21 September 1923. He attended the classical lyceum in Rimini, graduating in 1943.

Zavoli's journalistic career began as a football radio commentator in 1945. He collaborated in the production of a twice-daily news bulletin broadcast to Rimini's Piazza Cavour; in particular, Zavoli reported on Rimini FC's matches. The broadcast was the predecessor of the daily summer radio programme broadcast along Rimini's beaches; Zavoli is credited with the broadcast's name, Publiphono. In the late 1940s, Zavoli directed Città Nuova, a weekly newspaper dedicated to discussing Rimini's post-war reconstruction, to which Renato Zangheri, future mayor of Bologna, also contributed.

Sports journalism and early documentaries

In 1947, Zavoli was scouted for RAI, the Italian state broadcasting company, by Vittorio Veltroni, who led RAI's radio commentary editorial team. He made his first debut on national radio on 15 February 1948 at a Roma–Fiorentina match, substituting an indisposed commentator.

Zavoli's early documentaries included Scartamento ridotto (1952), exploring local views about the replacement of the steam engine on the Rimini–Novafeltria railway with oil-powered railcars. His Notturno a Cnosso (1953), produced with Giovanni Battista Angioletti, documented a nocturnal tourist itinerary in Crete, including the island's mythology and history; the documentary won the 1953 Prix Italia. Zavoli won a second Prix Italia in 1958 for Clausura (1957), exploring support and criticism for enclosed nuns, which included interviews through the grates of their enclosures. The documentary was translated into six languages, and its footage reused in a 2001 television series.

Move to television

In the 1960s, Zavoli moved more definitively to television. In 1962, he inaugurated the first transmission of Il processo alla tappa, a popular series of sports programmes dedicated to the Giro d'Italia; Zavoli had created a similar programme on radio in 1958. His documentary I giardini di Abele (1969) reported from inside a psychiatric hospital in Gorizia. While making documentaries on current affairs, he also produced notable historical investigative documentaries, including Nascita di una dittatura (1972), a six-part series documenting the birth of Fascist Italy which won the Saint-Vincent Prize, and La notte della Repubblica (1989–90), documenting the Years of Lead in eighteen episodes. Panzini ha cent’anni (1963), a centenary documentary of Alfredo Panzini's bicycle journey to Bellaria, was celebrated locally.

Alongside those of Cesare Zavattini, Zavoli's documentaries were considered part of a new movement in Italian documentaries which were broadcast from the field rather than reshot in studios. Zavoli paid particular attention to platforming voices directly. Writing for La Stampa in 1977, Furio Colombo said that Zavoli's success was attributable to his respectful portrayal of political opponents, a quality that was rare in the Italian press at the time. He disliked intellectual sloppiness, which he called talking dialect (parlare dialetto), leading him to encourage doubt and critical inquiry against assumed certainties.

RAI leadership and later career

From 1976 to 1980, Zavoli was director of news programming on RAI's Radio 1, after which he became RAI's president until 1986. Zavoli navigated RAI through the advent of private broadcasters.

In 1993, Zavoli became the founding president of San Marino's state broadcaster, San Marino RTV. He directed Il Mattino, a daily newspaper in Naples, between 1993 and 1994. In 2001, Zavoli's series Diario di un cronista retold the story of his most significant investigative documentaries in fifty-five episodes.

In 1986, he was awarded an honorary degree in literature by the University of Urbino. Zavoli returned to the university in later years, organising and attending commemorative ceremonies. On 26 March 2007, for the "extraordinary contribution made to the cause of Italian journalism", the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Rome Tor Vergata awarded him an honorary degree in specialist publishing, multimedia communication and journalism. In 2007, he became President of the Journalism School of the University of Salerno.

Political career

In the 2001 general election, Zavoli was elected senator for the Democrats of the Left. On 22 June 2001, he joined the commission on the environment and environmental heritage, moving to the foreign affairs and emigration commission on 23 March 2004, and finally to the public education and cultural heritage commission on 29 September 2005. The first bill he introduced, on 17 October 2001, called for annual contributions to the Centro Nazionale di Studi Leopardiani and an institute in Rome dedicated to Eugenio Montale.

In the 2006 general election, Zavoli and was reelected for the Olive Tree, moving to the library and historical archive commission on 7 July 2006 and becoming its president from 18 October 2006 until the 2008 general election, in which he was reelected for the Democratic Party. While his first presidency of the library and historical archive commission ended, he remained a member for the rest of his political career, and rejoined the public education and cultural heritage commission from 22 May 2008 to 15 December 2009, after which he returned to the public education and cultural heritage commission until 24 February 2011, when he returned to the environment and environmental heritage commission.

Zavoli served as Chairman of the RAI Supervisory Commission from 4 February 2009 until 14 March 2013, succeeded by Roberto Fico. Zavoli's appointment was widely reported in the Italian press as a compromised solution by Italy's political establishment following the controversy of Riccardo Villari's appointment.

Zavoli was reelected for the Democratic Party in the 2013 general election; aged 89, he was the oldest elected candidate. He had a second term as president of the library and historical archive commission from 18 September 2013 to 22 March 2018, and rejoined the public education and cultural heritage commission on 7 May 2013. Zavoli retired at the 2018 general election. Contrary to a TG2 report on his death, Zavoli was never a senator for life.

Among the legislative bills Zavoli cosigned as senator were a bill for a bank holiday on 17 March commemorating the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, a bill for a trade conference in Parma on food safety…