Italian Cinema Today

In March, Italian documentary filmmaker Roberto Minervini received a special mention Nastro d'Argento (Il Nastro Speciale) for his film, The Other Side . It's recently been shown at the Palm Springs FilmFestival and Lincoln Center . On June 10, it will return to Toronto where it originally premiered last year at the Toronto Film Festival . The title most likely references  “the tracks,” offering a portrait of America’s poor, surviving on a diet of beer, tobacco, heroin and crack in trailer homes in Louisiana and Texas.   Minervini is becoming known for his hybrid form of filmmaking, which shows people essentially play themselves, creating the look and feel of a documentary, while the director clearly intervenes to create situations rather than observe them. His work is among the most interesting to emerge from the US in recent years, which may be surprising considering he is an Italian who has decided to poke his camera into the margins of American society. On ...

Born in the historic seaside city of Crotone, Calabria, actor Stefano Grillo  is about to reach North American shores. "Quo Vado?" is Checco Zalone's box office record-breaking film and it's in the lineup of this year's edition of the Italian Contemporary Film Festival  in Canada. Grillo plays the part of Don Michele Vannucci, the pastor in a fictitious village in Calabria, called Castrovizzo. Don Michele Vannucci is a priest who fights against organized crime and because of this, ends up being transferred elsewhere. The focus of "Quo vado?" is on Checco Zalone ( Luca Medici aka Checco Zalone ). Born into a life of relative comfort and privilege among his peers in his small town in southern Italy, he is one of the lucky few to have a posto fisso, or guaranteed job as a public servant. When a new reformist government vows to cut down on bureaucracy, Checco is forced to accept ever-worsening public-sector postings in order to maintain his guarante...

With Alberto Diamante in Toronto, Canada By teaching a teenage boy how to win over a girl, a crusty bookstore owner learns to resolve his own romantic troubles. This is the story of The Bookstore , the charming, thought-provoking comedy by Alberto Diamante, which is in the lineup of Canada's Italian Contemporary Film Festival. Alberto Diamante is a jack-of-all-trades. He wrote the screenplay, directed the film and participated as a lead actor. We met last year in Toronto at the Italian Contemporary Film Festival. He photographed my interview with Edoardo Leo, and we had a very nice conversation while waiting for Leo to arrive for the interview. However, I had no idea the range of his talent. Now living in Toronto, Diamante is originally from Italy. He called on his Italian culture when writing the screenplay for The Bookstore . I spoke with Diamante about those roots, his many talents and the idea for this film. So where did this idea come...

Enrico Medioli and Rocco Talucci What do you get when you round up a bunch of Golden Age cinema legends to talk about one of their peers? An engaging documentary called, "Ritratto di sceneggiatore in un interno" (Portrait of a Writer). It is a beautiful film filled with nostalgia, wit and recollections of an era gone by. Filmmaker Rocco Talucci explores the career of renowned writer Enrico Medioli who worked with the likes of Luchino Visconti, Valerio Zurlini and Sergio Leone, and is credited for writing their masterpieces: "Il Gattopardo," "Once Upon a Time in America" and "Ludwig". He also worked extensively in television, creating recent hits like the acclaimed 2007 "War and Peace" and the 2008 miniseries "Coco Chanel." With "Ritratto di sceneggiatore in un interno", Talucci analyzes the work of Medioli through his unpublished testimonies and those of the people who have worked with him throughout his dis...

From the makers of While Web Series comes another ambitious project. This time, the young filmmakers are following in the footsteps of their iconic predecessor Sergio Leone . According to producer David Cinnella, “Tek” is a Cyberpunk Western with sci-fi influences. Like “While”, the series will be shot entirely in Basilicata. The creators of “Tek” are prolific writers and filmmakers currently producing a wealth of material from news reports to magazine articles to a web series. Among their projects, which showcase the creativity and talent of artists and filmmakers not only from Basilicata but from all over the world, are the online magazine “Voce Spettacolo” and the production company, 149 pictures. Born in the town of Policoro to an American mother and Italian father, David Cinnella was raised in Matera. His diverse cultural background led him to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where he studied filmmaking. He currently resides in Los Angeles. I asked him...