Italian Cinema Today

Singer/Songwriter Rosmy performs at the Giornate del Cinema Lucano in Maratea My editor at  Fra Noi Magazine recently asked me to write an article about my experience traveling through Basilicata and researching my origins there. If you've followed this blog for a while, then you know that I am always happy to offer my insight into contemporary Basilicata. New School Basilicata It has been 20 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America. I was living in New York City at the time and working at ABC News as a video editor. Seeing all that heartbreaking footage of people jumping to their deaths from the Twin Towers and then walking through the eeriness of Manhattan made me realize how precious life is and how we can literally be here one moment and gone the next. That realization led me to do something I had been putting off for years — perform a genealogical search of my maternal great-grandmother’s family in Basilicata. Of all my great-grandparents who emigrated from Italy, I ...

If you were only to know Nando Irene on social media, you would come to know the three leading forces in his life- his family, his land and his work. He comes from the southern region of Basilicata. Born in Matera, he was raised in the nearby town of Salandra, a beautiful landscape bordered by the region’s signature calanchi mountains and olive groves as far as the eye can see. When he talks about Basilicata, he recounts the past when it was referred to as Italy’s shame and how it has grown through the years to become a major tourist attraction and film set for countless movies including Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and more recently Ben Hur and Wonder Woman .  Irene approaches his craft with the same passion and enthusiasm he has for his land. When he decided to pursue acting as a career, he picked up and moved to Rome. He stayed for nine years, taking numerous courses and making contacts in the industry. It was during those years that he landed his first jobs ...