Italian Cinema for the New Millennium: Cinema as Witness

New Haven, Conn. — Yale University will host “Italian Cinema for the New Millennium,” an event that includes a film festival, faculty symposium and graduate conference, April 19–22.

All films, talks and panels are free and open to the public. Films will be screened in the Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium, 53 Wall St., and speakers will present in Room 208 of the Center. “Italian Cinema for the New Millennium” is organized by the Italian Department, in conjunction with the Italian Cultural Institute of New York and Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Office of Public Affairs.

The Film Festival will begin on April 19 at 7:30 p.m. with “Perlasca, un eroe italiano” (Perlasca: The Courage of a Just Man), directed by Alberto Negrin. Based on the true story of an Italian businessman who masqueraded as a Spanish diplomat at the end of WWII, Perlasca tells the tale of one man’s remarkable ingenuity and audacity in saving 5,200 Hungarian Jews from deportation to Auschwitz.

On April 20, at 7:30 p.m., “Buongiorno, notte” (Good Morning, Night), by Marco Bellocchio will be screened. This film depicts the murder of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades in 1978.

On April 21, the festival will feature the U.S. premiere of Emanuele Crialese’s “Nuovomondo” (The Golden Door) in two screenings at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., with an introduction by Yale librarian Anthony Riccio, author of “The Italian-American Experience in New Haven.” Set in the early 1900s during the great wave of Italian immigration to the U.S., the film tells the story of a farmer, Salvatore, who uproots his family from Sicily in the hopes of harvesting the American dream. “Nuovomondo” has won several prizes, including a Silver Lion at the 2006 Venice Film Festival, and was the Italian submission to the 2007 Academy Awards. It is presented courtesy of Miramax.

On April 20 through 22, scholars and students from the U.S. and Italy will meet to discuss new trends in Italian cinematography and to celebrate the legacy of one of Italy’s most esteemed directors, Roberto Rossellini. Speakers include such scholars as Millicent Marcus, Dudley Andrew, Francesco Casetti, Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Giuseppe Mazzotta. Isotta Ingrid Rossellini and her brother Renzo will participate to honor the memory of their father.