Robin Romano

The Romano archives are housed at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut.

• Name — U. Roberto (Robin) Romano • Birth Name — Umberto Roberto Romano, Jr. • Birthplace — New York City, U.S. • Died — 1 November 2013 • Place of death — New York, U.S. • Education — Amherst College (1980) • Occupation — Documentary filmmaker, producer, photographer, educator, human rights activist • Known for — Faces of Freedom (2009), The Harvest/La Cosecha (2010)

Romano was born in New York City in 1956. His father was the portrait painter and Works Progress Administration muralist Umberto Romano (died September 27, 1982); his mother was Clorinda Corcia. Romano Sr. was born in Bracigliano, near Salerno, Italy, and migrated to the United States at the age of 9 with his parents. Romano Jr. attended the Lycée Français de New York, Allen-Stevenson School and Horace Mann High School. He graduated from Amherst College as an Interdisciplinary Scholar in 1980. Romano began his filmmaking career as a producer and cameraman for Les Productions de Sagittaire in Montreal. He died at his home of complications related to Lyme disease.

Due to his efforts to raise the profile of child labor in global consciousness, Romano was invited to speak at many conventions, conferences and universities. He gave the Frank Porter Graham Lecture at the Johnson Center for Academic Excellence, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, and the Gene and Georgia Mittelman Distinguished Lecture in the Arts at the University of Connecticut. In 2007, he addressed the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs annual conference in Coeur d'Alene. In 2010, he visited Capitol Hill to screen scenes from his film The Harvest, which documented migrant child labor on American farms. Romano lobbied Congress for the passage of the Children's Act for Responsible Employment (CARE Act, HR 3564), first proposed in 2009 by Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard, aimed at strengthening protections for children working in the agriculture industry.

• Globalization and Human Rights (PBS film) (1998) • Stolen Childhoods (2005) • The Dark Side of Chocolate (2010) • The Harvest/La Cosecha (2010) • Death of a Slave Boy

Robin Romano is recorded as photographer, human rights defender and film director.