Paola Piscitelli

I am a documentary filmmaker and urban studies researcher working at the intersection of ethnography, urban theory, and audiovisual and sensory exploration. My practice initially developed through the lens of the city and has progressively expanded into film and multimodal research as critical and creative methods of inquiry.

My trajectory follows an unconventional path that bridges academic research and fieldwork, urban planning and cinema. It has been shaped by the guidance of exceptional mentors, including Prof. Alessandro Balducci (Politecnico di Milano) and Prof. Martina Neuburger (Universität Hamburg), as well as by my incomparable and inspiring maestra, the filmmaker, academic, and audiovisual art curator Dr. Ludovica Fales.

This journey weaves together diverse professional landscapes and geographical contexts, informed by a Southern perspective. Through research and filmmaking, my work seeks to illuminate and make sense the human stories that emerge within—and reshape—the ever-changing urban environments we inhabit.

Research areas

• Urban studies
• Urban Souths
• Migration
• Documentary filmmaking and visual and sensory ethnography

Audiovisual projects and films: 

• Waithood (2025) – director and second camera operator.
  Produced by Colibrì Film and Audioimage.
• The Space of Inequalities (Lo spazio delle disuguaglianze, Italy, 2025) – director, archive researcher and assistant to the editing.
  Produced by the 24th International Exhibition of Triennale Milano.
• L’Orto del mondo (Italy, 2023) – co-director, within the collective film developed through a laboratory process conceived and curated by Giovanni Cioni and Ludovica Fales.
• Io non vedo il mare | Border[scape]s – director.
  Produced by Museo Madre and DAAD PRIME (https://youtu.be/kLz0PMG_Tf0)  
• Radio Riders (2020) – director, with F. Corbellini.
  Produced by Scuole Civiche, Author, director, camera operator, and editor
  Awarded at the Job Films Day 2020 and selected at the Work@Campus – Festival dei Popoli.   
• L’Adolescenza delle città (2019), by Alessandro Penta.
  Produced by Fondazione G. Feltrinelli.
  Project curatorship and assistant editor for the film. 

Since 2025

• MSCA Post-doctoral Fellow Researcher at the UHH-Universität Hamburg, Institute of Geography (Germany), the Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard University (Cambridge), and the Politecnico di Milano (Milan).

2021-2024

• Post-doctoral Fellow Research in Urban Studies at Politecnico di Milano.

2019-2021

• DAAD PRIME research fellow (PostDoc Position) in Urban Studies between UHH-Universität Hamburg (Germany), the “University of Witwatersrand” (South Africa) and the “Università Federico II di Napoli”.
• Working Group “Critical geographies of global inequalities”.

2017

• PhD in Regional Planning and Public Policy (passed with distinction) – IUAV-University of Venice (Italy)
  Title: “Mobile Urbanity: Translocal Traders and the City in Southern Africa”.
  Supervisors: Professor Balbo M. and Pasqui G.

2014-2016

• Visiting researcher at: Faculty of Geography – University of Neuchâtel, on invitation of Prof. Söderström O., Neuchâtel (Switzerland) in 2016; Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, on invitation of Prof. Raimundo I. Maputo (Mozambique), November – December 2015; University of Westminster – Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment – London (UK) – February – June 2015; the African Center for Migration and Society (ACMS) of the University of the Witwatersrand, within the framework of the EU Program “Sharing Spaces. Research on intercultural cities and collective spaces” – Johannesburg (South Africa),

2014-2015

• Internship at the Centre for Urbanism and Built Environment Studies (CUBES) – University of Witwatersrand, on invitation of Prof. Huchzermeyer M.. Johannesburg (South Africa)

2014

• Post-Graduate Program “COOPERA(C)TION Knowledge and Skills for Sustainable Cities in the Global South” – Polytechnic of Milan (Italy)

2013

• Master of Science in Urban Planning and Policy Design (Magna cum laude) – Polytechnic of Milan (Italy). Title: „EgIptaly. Territorial survey on migration between Egypt and Italy”. Supervisors: Prof. Bricocoli M. and Prof. Pasqui G.

2010

• Bachelor Degree in Urban Planning and Territorial Sciences (Magna cum laude) – Federico II University of Naples (Italy) Title: „Il waterfront di Portici come occasione di riconcettualizzazione del mare come bene comune”. Supervisor: Prof. Dal Piaz A.