"CIAO ANITA"

Shot in her final months in Castelgandolfo, nearby Rome and the home where she was confined to a wheelchair, “Ciao ANITA” is an autobiography that affords a window into the heart, mind and soul of a screen legend.
Over the years film scholars have attempted to label Anita Ekberg, but possessing the gifts for which she was endowed, how could any or all of them possibly sum up the real Anita?
For the first and only time of a career spanning five decades, Anita talks candidly about her fellow actors and friends with whom she worked.
In an intimate setting, she opens her heart, revealing anecdotes of love affairs with likes of Frank Sinatra, Tyrone Power and Yul Brynner, who she describes as a great lover, her relationship with Federico Fellini and his wife Giulietta Masina and Gianni Agnelli her
greatest love.
We journey back in time from her encounter with Howard Hughes as a young model in Hollywood, to King Vidor’s “War and Peace” opposite Henry Fonda to 1959 when she played the unattainable Silvia Rank, for whom Marcello Mastroianni pines as he watches
her frolic in Rome’s Trevi Fountain.
It was said then that Fellini made her career with the iconic scene in the “Dolce Vita” but in Anita’s view it was the other way around.
With a wicked sense of humor Anita lays bare her soul for all to see, alternating between hilarity, sadness, dreams, her love for animals, the loss of her Villa and a wistful longing for that which she never attained on both a professional and personal level.
This film is a tribute to a woman that always fought with pride, for her independence, even during the lonelines of her aging years with heavy health issues.
Her passing caused us to interrupt the shooting, and only later did we decide that Anita, the Diva and friend, deserved the film to be completed.
Jacques Goyard & Marco Kuveiller

  • Jacques Lipkau Goyard
    Director
    Born in Rome, with a passion for motion pictures and traveling. Started in the industry as casting assistant, dubbing actor and production manager. Next phase was the famed Hollywood-based talent agency William Morris as an agent, in Rome, London, New York and Los Angeles. Years later, made films as a production executive around the world; produced and directed International docufiction series. Ceo of Exordia Corporation, and award winning film producer and screenwriter. In past years, board member and Ceo of companies managing museums across Italy. Former vice president Italian Film Commissions (IFC) and coordinator of Roma Cinema Film Commission in partnership with Rome Municipality and Cinecittà Studios. Represented RAI Trade, the Italian state television in India. Marketing and audiovisual consultant to Cinecittà Studios and Terni Centro MultiMediale. Years go by and the passion is still strong. Now, with Human Touch Media, colorization is giving films of yesteryear a new life…
  • Marco Kuveiller
    Director
    Mr. Kuveiller was very lucky to receive as a young kid, a Leica 35mm camera and have famed Director of Photography, Luigi Kuveiller, as his uncle. His passion for film started at 13 when he was accepted on sets as his uncle’s assistant. After years of apprenticeship, and majoring in architecture, he finally became a DoP himself, directed documentaries, corporate films and short films. Looking through the camera lens gave him – even today – a world of his own, offering him the privilege of showing audiences his particular vision of colors. His professional life has been influenced since the day when he received the Leica from his Dad. The intense color palette and the multiple forms of light he experienced during travels to various remote and undisclosed locations has sharpened the way he savours an intense sense of freedom. To the point that his passion for colors has brought him to develop new techniques of restoration and colorization of historical black & white film archive, to allow the young generations to appreciate – in color – historical black & white events hidden in some vault, that otherwise they would have never seen.
  • Jacques Lipkau Goyard
    Producer
    Born in Rome, with a passion for motion pictures and traveling. Started in the industry as casting assistant, dubbing actor and production manager. Next phase was the famed Hollywood-based talent agency William Morris as an agent, in Rome, London, New York and Los Angeles. Years later, made films as a production executive around the world; produced and directed International docufiction series. Ceo of Exordia Corporation, and award winning film producer and screenwriter. In past years, board member and Ceo of companies managing museums across Italy. Former vice president Italian Film Commissions (IFC) and coordinator of Roma Cinema Film Commission in partnership with Rome Municipality and Cinecittà Studios. Represented RAI Trade, the Italian state television in India. Marketing and audiovisual consultant to Cinecittà Studios and Terni Centro MultiMediale. Years go by and the passion is still strong. Now, with Human Touch Media, colorization is giving films of yesteryear a new life…
  • Anita Ekberg
    Key Cast
    "self"
    Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg (September 29, 1931 – January 11, 2015) She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita (1960). Ekberg worked primarily in Italy, where she became a permanent resident in 1964. Anita worked as a fashion model. Ekberg entered the Miss Malmö competition in 1950 at her mother's urging. This led to the Miss Sweden contest which she won. She consequently went to the United States to compete for the 1951 Miss Universe title (an unofficial pageant at that time, the pageant became official in 1952), despite speaking very little English. Although Ekberg did not win the Miss Universe pageant, as one of six finalists she did earn a starlet's contract with Universal Studios, as was the practice at the time. As a starlet at Universal, she received lessons in drama, elocution, dancing, horseback riding, and fencing. She appeared briefly in the 1953 Universal films Abbott and Costello Go to Mars and The Golden Blade. Ekberg skipped many of her drama lessons, restricting herself to riding horses in the Hollywood Hills. Ekberg later admitted she was spoiled by the studio system and played instead of pursuing bigger film roles. By the mid-1950s, after several modeling jobs, Ekberg finally broke into the film industry. She guest-starred in the short-lived TV series Casablanca (1955) and Private Secretary. She had a small part in the film Blood Alley (1955) starring John Wayne and Lauren Bacall. She appeared alongside the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy act in Artists and Models (1955) and Hollywood or Bust (1956), both for Paramount Pictures. For a time, she was even publicized as "Paramount's Marilyn Monroe". Ekberg was featured in five films released during 1956. Paramount cast her in War and Peace (1956) which was shot in Rome, alongside Mel Ferrer and Audrey Hepburn. Meanwhile, RKO Pictures gave the actress her first leading role in an early disaster film Back from Eternity (also 1956). The last two were Man in the Vault and Zarak, both minor studio productions that had a limited impact on her career. Federico Fellini gave Ekberg her best known role in La Dolce Vita (1960), performing as Sylvia Rank, the unattainable "dream woman" of the character played by Marcello Mastroianni. The film features a scene of her cavorting in Rome's Trevi Fountain alongside Mastroianni, which has been called "one of cinema's most iconic scenes". Ekberg co-starred with Andress, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin in the western-comedy 4 for Texas (1963). Fellini would call her back for two more films: The Clowns (1972) and Intervista (1987). In the latter, she appeared as herself in a reunion scene with Mastroianni. Ekberg died on January 11, 2015, at the age of 83, at the clinic San Raffaele in Rocca di Papa in Castelli Romani, Italy from complications of enduring illnesses. Her remains are buried at the cemetery of Skanör Church in Sweden.
  • Gwen Perry
    Key Cast
    "self"
    Performer & vocalist
  • Lars Hector
    Key Cast
    "self"
    PR man & author
  • Jacques Lipkau Goyard
    Key Cast
    "self"
    Producer, director
  • Maria Attanasio
    Key Cast
    "self"
    Anita's housekeer
  • Sister Anna Maria
    Key Cast
    "self"
    Nun
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Feature
  • Runtime:
    50 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    October 1, 2019
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy, Spain, Sweden
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16/9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Rome International Independent Film Fest (RIFF)
    Rome
    Italy
    November 20, 2019
    Italian Premiere
    Riff Awards Official Selection
  • Syracuse International Film Fest (NY)
    Syracuse NY
    United States
    November 20, 2019
    US premiere
    Jury's invitational, not in competion.
Distribution Information
  • Istituto Luce Cinecittà - Simona Agnoli s.agnoli@cinecittaluce.it
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Jacques Lipkau Goyard, Marco Kuveiller

Born in Rome, with a passion for motion pictures and traveling. Started in the industry as casting assistant, dubbing actor and production manager. Next phase was the famed Hollywood-based talent agency William Morris as an agent, in Rome, London, New York and Los Angeles.
Years later, made films as a production executive around the world; produced and directed International docufiction series. Ceo of Exordia Corporation, and award winning film producer and screenwriter.
In past years, board member and Ceo of companies managing museums across Italy. Former vice president Italian Film Commissions (IFC) and coordinator of Roma Cinema Film Commission in partnership with Rome Municipality and Cinecittà Studios. Represented RAI Trade, the Italian state television in India. Marketing and audiovisual consultant to Cinecittà Studios and Terni Centro MultiMediale.
Years go by and the passion is still strong. Now, with Human Touch Media, colorization is giving films of yesteryear a new life…

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

This film is a tribute to a woman that always fought with pride, for her independence, even
during the lonelines of her aging years with heavy health issues.

Her passing caused us to interrupt the shooting, and only later did we decide that Anita,
the Diva and friend, deserved the film to be completed.
Jacques Lipkau Goyard & Marco Kuveiller