The Undercover Man (excerpt), 2008. 16mm film transfer to HD video, 30:00 min. Courtesy Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam and prometeo gallery di Ida Pisani
SculptureCenter presented the U.S. premiere of Rossella Biscotti's film The Undercover Man (2008). Part of a larger project that includes sculptures, photographs, and a publication, the film is a portrait of Joseph D. Pistone, an FBI agent also known as Donnie Brasco. Pistone spent six years undercover with New York's Bonnano crime family resulting in the conviction of over 100 members of the mafia in the 1980s. To make the film, Biscotti worked directly with Pistone, interviewing him at length and reviewing with him photographs and documents she retrieved from the archives of the FBI and National Archives and Records Administration. Unlike the dramatic narrative of the 1997 Hollywood film, Donnie Brasco, Biscotti's film uses the stylistic tropes of film noir to present direct interviews with Pistone, original audio recordings and surveillance images, and symbolic objects such as a light bulb, a clock, and an audio recorder. The film explores the memories and identity of a man who lived a fictional role and now lives in the shadows to protect himself.