Anthony Cristiano is an Italian-born Canadian film director, educator, and writer. As a film director, Cristiano's style is chiefly characterized by a poetic tone via the use of raw film texture, counterpointed use of music, and psychologically meandering situations and characters. This style is manifested in his DVD titled "A Self-Conscious Mise-en-scene", which is released in 2008 and consists of 10 short films he made between the years 1998–2008. The DVD collection was later presented and screened by Cristiano in a special lecture at the Frank Iacobucci Centre in University of Toronto. Cristiano is also a film scholar. For several years, he has been a workshop instructor at various film co-operatives across Canada. In 2006, Cristiano gave a lecture and led workshops on experimental films for Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative at the National Film Board of Canada in Halifax. In 2007, he instructed the first session of a Masterclass Workshop Series led by Island Media Arts Cooperative in Prince Edward Island. In 2010, he was a workshop instructor for the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto. From the springs of 2013 to 2015, Cristiano has hosted an Italian Film Series of public screening as part of the Culture, Arts, and Entertainment programs of the Toronto Reference Library. On 27 March 2014 Cristiano gave a public lecture titled "The Incidence of Screens: an Extension of Human Abilities or a Historic Distraction?" as part of the Laurier Milton Lecture Series V at the Milton Public Library, in which he discussed the relevance of McLuhan laws of media and axioms and argued that there is evidence of harm, especially among young users, caused by the addiction to personal devices. Cristiano also gave a public talk on Canadian practices, "Digital Technologies & Surveillance Practices: Do they protect or harm us?" at the Brantford Public Library on May 13, 2015. On May 26, 2015, Cristiano also gave a talk on the dangers associated with digitization and new media trends given to University of Copernicus students.
Short films
Cristiano's flair as a writer and poet is translated into his short films to capture the bewilderment of everyday life. For example, his short films Il mio umore and Intervalli chiaroscuri are based on his homonymous poems. In Infinitely Near, which appeared at the 30th Student Film & Video Festival of Montreal World Film Festival, Cristiano explores the issues of everyday life and human relationship through the mathematical concept of limit. The character of the mathematics professor in Infinitely Near was played by Patrick O'Donnell, a physics professor at University of Toronto, who also appeared in Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting. Cristiano also uses short film to express his scholarly ideas. Screened in New York, his A Matter of Style discusses cinematic theory as the dialogue between two different styles of chair. A Self-Conscious Mise-en-scene is based on Cristiano's short story "The Millenary Man". In his scholarly article about this short film, titled "A Self-Conscious Mise-en-scène: Experimenting with 'Disownment and Appropriation'", Cristiano explains his experimental work as a way to solve a communicative crisis. On May 28, 2015, "A Minute Life " film screened at Collegium Maius, Toruǹ.
