Dino de Toffol is a freelance documentary video artist working with his own digital equipment.

		Taiganà - The last Reindeer Herders of Mongolia In 1998 Dino de Toffol, in cooperation with D. Bellatalla and the O.N.G. Crocevia of Rome, did an ethnographic documentary titled: "Taigana-the last Reindeer Herders of Mongolia", a community abandoned after democracy's advent in 1990 and which is now at risk of extinction. The docu. was shown on various Italian television networks such as Rai1, Rai3, Teleliguriasud, and Mongolian TV. In remote northern Mongolia, close to the Siberian border and among the mountains of Hovsgol province, live the people of the taiga: the Taigana - better known as Tsaatan or Dukha. They have lived since ancient times in the huge valleys of the Altai mountains and have been breeders of reindeer from which they get food and sustenance. In 1994, due of a very serious epidemic that hit their animals, the Taigana saw drastic numbers of them die. Dino de Toffol and David Bellatalla felt they needed to help them immediately, with the cooperation of the Mongolian Red Cross, the O.N.G. Crocevia of Rome and the Mongolian Cultural Association Soyombo in Milan. The documentary tells about the nomadic lifestyle of the 180 people living in the taiga and their dramatic situation. The film was realized with the cooperation of the Associazione Culturale SOYOMBO
		Lusajiu - People of Gods from Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta (Colombia). In 1991, in cooperation with the Ethnographic Department of Genova University, he did an ethnographic documentary about the Indios of the Sierra Nevada of Sta. Marta in Colombia: "Lusajiu-People of Gods". The docu. was shown on Italian TV channels Rai3, Canale5. "Before everything, the sea only was existing, everything was dark; there was no sun, no moon and neither people, animals, and plants. The sea was everywhere, the sea was the Mother. The Mother was neither people nor anything else She was only the memory and the conscience of what would have happened..." This ancient thought of the Lusajiu, this surprising conception of their own existence, doesn't go along very well with our common sense of "primitive people" used by many to identify those groups of people who are geographically and historically isolated from the old continent. But with difficulty, we, "minor brothers", will be able to deeply understand the thought of the "major brothers". Between January 1989 and march 1990, Dino de Toffol and David Bellatalla, together with Paolo Fiorini and Daniele Sigismondi, trekked through the Andes, starting in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) and ending in Venezuela, collecting a huge quantity of videos and photos. After first attempting to approach the group of Lusajiu during the Expedition Andes '89, Dino and David went back to Colombia in February 1992. They were able to obtain permission to live for a month with the Lusajiu from their religious chiefs... ."From the first day of our presence there, we were trying to live with them and especially like them, helping them in their daily work, eating the same food and avoiding periods of isolation from them"... "After a beginning of mistrust, they accepted us not as anthropologists only but as human beings".
		Ulan Bator the underground children During his frequent trips to Mongolia for research as well as for providing aid to the Taigana, Dino got in touch with some of the 3000 children who live in the underground of the capital, Ulaan Baatar. Ignoring the indifference of the government and the general populace, he considered it a moral obligation to take his camera to document the living conditions and the everyday life of these children. He hoped to get the attention of whoever could help them. 10 years after the collapse of the socialist system, all over the east, the traces left by the Russians - who dominated Mongolia for 70 years - are still obvious. In the capital Ulaan Baatar live about one million people and 70% of them are under the age of 30. Attracted by new opportunities for work, easy money and western goods, people arriving from the countryside and small villages have a very difficult and often traumatic interaction with the city. Alcoholism is one of the worst factors that causes fighting, divorces and ill-treatment within families. As usual, children are those who pay the highest price. There are, in fact, more than 3000 children left by themselves, living mainly underground beneath the capital, where the hot water-pipelines run and provide them the heat that separates them from the outside freezing temperatures that last from October through March. These "underground children" do not go out of their refuge even for physiological needs; the stench is unbearable, and their living condition are based on survival; when their are hungry, they search for food into garbage containers. They usually come from families of up to seven people; they often have to leave parents and school because they are beaten. Often the family does not have enough money to pay the rent and suddenly all the members are out on the street. The government and the general populace seem to be quite indifferent to this situation, but fortunately there are some volunteers who try to take care of many of them.