Italian Cinema Today

When a team of speleologists descended 700 meters into the Bifurto Abyss in Cosenza, Calabria, in 1961, they discovered that the underground caverns were the third deepest in the world and the deepest in Europe. Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Frammartino retraces that mission six decades later with a cast of locals and their livestock in his latest documentary, “Il buco” (“The Hole”). Inspiration for the film came while he was on location shooting his 2007 documentary, “Le quattro volte” (“Four Times”). Officials in the Pollino mountains, which stretch between Calabria and Basilicata, showed him what appeared to be just another sinkhole. Frammartino failed to understand their enthusiasm until they tossed a large stone into the void. It disappeared without making a sound. He was so overcome by the experience and the eerie landscape, he was haunted for years, compelling him to make his current film, one of many rooted in nature. “I was born in Milan, but my family is from Calabria. My pa...

 The Ionian Coast of Maratea in Basilicata I have great pride in my Lucani origins. It’s a pride that runs deep through my soul and I only realized that depth when I visited for the first time in 2002. I met my cousins and walked the narrow streets my great grandparents once walked. After visiting, I felt truly to have gone home.  Whenever I want to feel the nostalgia and warmth of the people.. or the clouds lingering over the mountains, I lose myself in the music of Giuseppe “Pino” Mango with his unique voice and regional instruments that bring me back to the land of my heart. Today, the world lost this amazing artist, but his music will live on in those who appreciate his unique talent for creating not only a song, but a memory and an atmosphere. We mourn the untimely death of Basilicata’s renowned singer and songwriter, Mango, by revisiting my 2012 interview with an innovative filmmaker whose passion is writing about our beloved southern Italy. ...