Tao Ruspoli

Janelle Monea - 21st Century, Portrait Photography

2009

Tao Ruspoli is an Italian-American filmmaker, photographer and musician. He is the second son of occasional actor and aristocrat Prince Alessandro Ruspoli, 9th Prince of Cerveteri by Austrian-American actress Debra Berger. Tao was born in Bangkok, Thailand, and raised in Rome and Los Angeles. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. “Moviemaker” magazine singled out Ruspoli as one of the 10 Young Filmmakers To Watch in its spring 2008 issue. His feature narrative debut, Fix, was one of 10 feature films to screen in competition at the 2008 Slamdance Film Festival and soon afterward at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where Ruspoli was awarded the Heineken Red Star Award for most innovative and progressive filmmaker. Fix also won the Festival Award for Best Film at the 2008 Brooklyn Film Festival, Vail Film Festival and the 2008 Twin Rivers Media Festival, as well as other prizes at several international festivals. His most well-known documentary is Just Say Know, a personal discussion of his family's drug addiction. His other films include Flamenco: A Personal Journey, a feature-length documentary about the flamenco way of life as it is lived by Gypsies in the south of Spain. He has directed several other short documentaries, including El Cable (also about Flamenco), and This Film Needs No Title: A Portrait of Raymond Smullyan (a portrait of the renowned logician, mathematician and concert pianist Raymond Smullyan). Tao founded LAFCO in 2000. The Los Angeles Filmmakers Cooperative is a bohemian collective of filmmakers and musicians who work out of a converted school bus. Through LAFCO, Tao has produced several films and helped dozens of filmmakers to make their first films and discover the wonders of digital media. His producing credits include the feature film Camjackers, which he also acted in and co-edited. Camjackers won the best editing award at the 44th Ann Arbor Film Festival. Tao is an accomplished flamenco guitar player, and his first CD, FLAMENCO, was released on Mapleshade Records in 2005. He married actress Olivia Wilde in 2003. They divorced in 2011. He currently lives and works in the High Desert, California. He is the co-founder of the Bombay Beach Biennale.