About

Born in Zambia and raised in Italy, Franco Sacchi is a documentary filmmaker, video journalist and educator based in Cambridge MA. His first feature length documentary aired on the Sundance Channel and was an official selection in numerous film festivals including the prestigious International Documentary Film festival in Amsterdam (IDFA). In 2005 he directed This is Nollywood a documentary about the Nigerian film industry that won Audience Award at the Abuja International Film Festival (Nigeria), and was broadcast internationally (TBS Latin America, SKYY Arts, UK, SABC 1 - South African Broadcasting Corporation). The success of the film led to an invitation to speak at the TED Global conference, which connected him with people interested in media and social change. Since then he has written and lectured extensively on Nollywood. Franco co-directed and filmed Waiting for Armageddon, and was released theatrically in 2010 and distributed by First Run Features. Waiting for Armageddon is also available on Netflix.

Over the years Franco has developed a keen interest in documentaries about economic development. As a member of the Development Communication Workshops (DevCom) he directed and produced numerous video case studies for the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT. In particular, his work for Legatum focused on African entrepreneurs and he has traveled extensively Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Kenya and Ethiopia). Franco also has passion for video journalism. He has produced and filmed numerous stories for clients such as the Huffington Post, RAI Italia (Italian Public television), Univision Digital and France-2.

As an educator Franco has 20 years of teaching experience with a strong background in post-production. He was a senior instructor at Avid technology from 1996 to 2002 and his clients ranged from TV Networks (ESPN, NBC news, ABC, Telemundo) to major universities and government agencies. Over the years Franco has taught hundreds of editing and filmmaking workshops.