Mondo film

Mondo film is a subgenre of exploitative documentary films. Many mondo films are pseudo-documentaries and usually depict sensational topics, scenes, or situations. Common traits of mondo films include portrayals of foreign cultures, an emphasis on taboo subjects such as death and sex, and staged sequences presented as genuine documentary footage. Over time, the films have placed increasing emphasis on footage of the dead and dying.
The term mondo is Italian for. The term shockumentary is also used to describe the genre.
Mondo films began to soar in popularity in the 1960s with the releases of Mondo Cane, Women of the World and Africa Addio. The genre arguably reached its peak with Faces of Death, a film that inspired myriad imitators, such as Banned from Television, Death Scenes, and the Traces of Death and Faces of Gore series.

History

Although earlier films such as Alessandro Blasetti's and may be considered examples of the genre, the origins of the mondo documentary are generally traced to the 1962 Italian film Mondo Cane by Paolo Cavara, Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi which was a commercial success.
Documentary films imitating Mondo Cane in the 1960s often included the term mondo in their titles, even if they were in English; examples include Mondo Bizarro, Mondo Daytona, Mondo Mod, Mondo Infame and Mondo Hollywood. Films outside the genre followed suit: Mondo Trasho, Mondo Weirdo: A Trip to Paranoia Paradise, Mondo Keyhole and Mondo Brutale title themselves mondo, although none are mondo documentaries. Later in the decade, this naming convention began to fall out of favour and fewer mondo films identified themselves as such in their titles.
Filmmakers wanted to top each other in shock value to attract audiences. Cruelty to animals, accidents, tribal-initiation rites and surgeries are features of a typical mondo. Much of the action is staged, although the filmmakers may claim their goal is to document "reality". Subjects of mondo films include sex ; celebrities ; youth culture and the gay subculture.
Russ Meyer's film Mondo Topless was one of the few "documentaries" restricted to the old midnight movie circuit in the pre-VCR era; it explored strip clubs in 1960s San Francisco, at a time when strip clubs were a novelty in the United States, restricted to centers of port-city decadence. Other examples of this genre include Mondo New York by Harvey Keith, Mondo di Notte by Gianni Proia and Mondo Balordo by Roberto Bianchi Montero.
The 1970s and 1980s saw a resurgence of mondo movies focusing almost exclusively on death, instead of world cultures. The Faces of Death series is a notable example of this type of mondo movie. The producers used fake footage, but some of the footage was legitimate. The Italian cannibal film is arguably an offshoot of the mondo film.
The rare 1985 film Mondo Senza Veli was purported by viewers to feature at its end the brutal execution of a young Arab rapist by public rectal impalement. This episode was, however, believed to have been a staged execution by some viewers.
Mondo films in the 21st century feature gore, exemplified by the Faces of Gore and Traces of Death series. There is less fake footage, and many use news footage of accidents from East Asia.
The late 2010s saw another resurgence, beginning with the Bootleg Death Tape series and Faces of Dying series from filmmaker Dustin Ferguson, which both involved various independent directors from around the world.
In 2015 a new take on the Mondo shockumentary genre came via a short film titled Cibo Di Violenza at a run time of 12 minutes, this film is listed as Cibo Di Violenza in Italian and translated as food of violence in English, both the director Bazz Hancher and co-writer Mike Lima are English.
A number of films have parodied the genre. Examples include Ricardo Fratelli's Mondo Ford, Mr. Mike's Mondo Video by Saturday Night Lives Michael O'Donoghue, and Is There Sex After Death? by Jeanne and Alan Abel. Mondo Beyondo spoofed the films' approach to titling, but was a parody of satellite television.

Films

The original mondo film series was the Mondo Cane series by Gualtiero Jacopetti, Paolo Cavara, and Franco Prosperi. When this type of film proved successful, many imitators followed.

Title	Year	Country	Director and screenplay	Music	Uncut run time	Notes
Mondo Cane	1962	Italy	Gualtiero Jacopetti Paolo Cavara Franco E. Prosperi	Riz Ortolani	108 minutes	R-rated run time 85 minutes; a.k.a. A Dog's Life
La donna nel mondo	1963	Italy	Gualtiero Jacopetti Paolo Cavara Franco E. Prosperi	Riz Ortolani Nino Oliviero	107 minutes	a.k.a. Women of the World
Mondo Cane 2	1963	Italy	Gualtiero Jacopetti Franco Prosperi	Nino Oliviero	95 minutes	R-rated run time 76 minutes; a.k.a. Mondo Pazzo
Africa Addio	1966	Italy	Gualtiero Jacopetti Franco Prosperi	Riz Ortolani	139 minutes	Unrated English version 128 minutes; R-rated version 80 minutes; a.k.a. Africa: Blood & Guts, Farewell Africa
Addio Zio Tom	1971	Italy	Gualtiero Jacopetti Franco Prosperi	Riz Ortolani	136 minutes	Unrated English version 123 minutes; a.k.a. Goodbye Uncle Tom

The pair's Mondo candido is not a mondo film; the title was imposed on them by the studio, who wished to cash in on their earlier successes. The film is a retelling of Voltaire's novel, Candide.
In the late 1980s, Stelvio Massi made two spin-offs of the original Mondo Cane series, known as Mondo Cane 3 and Mondo Cane 4 on video.

Title	Year	Country	Director and cinematography	Screenplay	Uncut run time	Notes
Mondo cane oggi - L'orrore continua	1986	Italy	Stelvio Massi	Stelvio Massi	78 minutes	a.k.a. Mondo Cane 3
Mondo cane 2000 - L'incredibile	1988	Italy	Stelvio Massi	G. Crisanti	73 minutes	a.k.a. Mondo Cane 4

In 1969, brothers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni began to make a series of their own mondo films until the early 1980s. They made five films in all, tying Jacopetti and Prosperi as the most prolific mondo film producers. Each film examines brutal and bizarre behavior on the African continent. Their films are considered some of the most graphic mondo films ever made.

Title	Year	Country	Directors	Music	Notes
Africa segreta	1969	Italy		Angelo Francesco Lavagnino	a.k.a. Secret Africa; uncut run time 103 min
Africa ama	1971	Italy		Angelo Francesco Lavagnino	a.k.a. Africa Uncensored
Magia nuda	1975	Italy		Ciro Dammicco	a.k.a. Mondo Magic
Addio ultimo uomo	1978	Italy		Franco Godi	a.k.a. The Last Savage
Africa dolce e selvaggia	1982	Italy		Franco Godi	a.k.a. Shocking Africa

Antonio Climati, cinematographer to Prosperi and Jacopetti in many mondo films, joined Mario Morra in 1974 to produce their own string of mondo films, known as the "Savage Trilogy". Prosperi also produced the films. Climati and Morra were known for staging scenes.

Title	Year	Country	Directors	Music	Notes
Ultime grida dalla savana	1975	Italy		Carlo Savina	a.k.a. Savage Man Savage Beast; uncut run time 94 min
Savana violenta	1976	Italy			a.k.a. This Violent World
Dolce e selvaggio	1983	Italy		Daniele Patucchi	a.k.a. Sweet and Savage

The 1978 Faces of Death popularized a mondo style known as "death films", which depicted humans or animals dying in graphic ways.

Title	Year	Director	Screenplay	Notes
The Faces of Death series	1978–1991	John Alan Schwartz	John Alan Schwartz	Four parts
The Worst of Faces of Death	1991	John Alan Schwartz	John Alan Schwartz	Compilation of first three Faces of Death films
Faces of Death: Fact or Fiction?	1999	John Alan Schwartz		Documentary about Faces of Death

Uwe Schier bought the rights to the Mondo Cane and Faces of Death films and released his own entries in both series, consisting largely of footage lifted from other mondo films. Faces of Death V draws heavily on Death Scenes; Faces of Death VI consists almost entirely of Days of Fury and Mondo Cane IV lifts from other films. In 1993, Hurricane Pictures edited a mix of scenes featured in Addio ultimo uomo and Shocking Africa, labeling it the "fifth chapter" of the saga.

Title	Year	Country	Notes
Mondo Cane IV	1992	Germany	-
Mondo Cane teil V	1993	Germany	a.k.a. Mondo Cane 5
Faces of Death V	1995	Germany	-
Faces of Death VI	1996	Germany	-

Several imitators followed the Faces of Death series; many used footage from other mondo films.
Other mondo films and movies influenced by the genre were released.

Another

Category:Film genres
Category:Documentary film genres