Events Archive

• Fall 2009
• Spring 2009
• Fall 2008
• Summer 2008
• Spring 2008
• Fall 2007
• Spring 2007

Fall 2009

The San Diego Italian Film Festival celebrates its third year, starting October 16 through November 7. With the exception of the November 6 showing, all films will be shown at the Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA), starting at 7:00 p.m.

The dates for the films at MoPA are October 16, 17, 22, 23, 31, November 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7.  The November 6 film will be shown at Birch North Park Theatre at 7 p.m. All films have English subtitles. Unless otherwise indicated the suggested donation is $5.

Fri., 16 Oct.
La bella vita, Paolo Virzi’, 97 min., 1994    

Sat., 17 Oct.
Ferie d’agosto, Paolo Virzi’, 110 min., 1996

Thurs., 22 Oct.
Ovosodo, Paolo Virzi’, 100 min., 1997

Fri., 23 Oct.
My name is Tanino, 124 min., Paolo Virzi’, 2002

Sat. 31 Oct.
Notte blu cobalto, Daniele Gangemi, 80 min., 2006 (Halloween Special)

Sun. 1 Nov.             
Uno su due, Eugenio Cappuccio, 100 min., 2006

Mon. 2 Nov. 
Basta un niente, Ivan Polidor, 95 min., 2008

Tues. 3 Nov.            
Se fossi in te, Giulio Manfredonia, 101 min., 2001

Wed. 4 Nov.
Apnea, Roberto Dordit, 85 min., 2005

Thur. 5 Nov.            
L’estate di mio fratello, Pietro Reggiani, 82 min., 2005

Fri. 6 Nov.             
La vera leggenda di Tony Vilar, Giuseppe Gagliardi, 93 min., 2006

Sat. 7 Nov.             
La seconda notte di nozze, Pupi Avati, 103 min., 2005: GALA

The San Diego Italian Film Festival presents Peppe Voltarelli in concert, November 6, at 10 p.m., at Caffe’ Calabria, 3933 University Ave., San Diego. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the Italian Film Festival website: www.sandiegoitalianfilmfestival.com  or at any of the Italian Film Festival movies, running now.  The concert is part of the Italian Film Festival.  The schedule for the movies can also be found on the website.

http://www.sandiegoitalianfilmfestival.com/

Spring 2009

The Italian Program and the department of european studies AT SAN DIEGO STATE PRESENTS A PUBLIC LECTURE ON WED APRIL 8 AT 4PM IN NE 175

The italian avant-garde of the 1960s: literature, art, music

The Italy of the mid-1950s, marked by the fall of the fascist regime and the end of World War II, remained somewhat anchored in its ancient traditions. In a cultural environment animated by the personal experiences of a few authors (Calvino, Moravia, Pasolini), emerged the "new avant-gardes", the "second avant-garde" or "neoavanguardia", terms used in contrast to the historical vanguards of the early twentieth century. This presentation will focus on the literary “neoavanguardia”, on the visual arts of Arte Programmata, Arte Concettuale, and Arte Povera, and the musical post-serialism of the Musica Nuova, which have been generally studied separately. Building on a a series of multimedia materials -- a selection of texts, images and music recordings -- the lecture will examine this apparent lack of connection, and present evidence for linking the Italian, European and American literary, artistic and music avant-gardes.

maria antonia yelamos martinez

Maria Antonia Yelamos Martinez is an associate professor of Italian Studies at the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid, where she teaches Italian language and literature. Currently, she is investigating the Italian avant-gardes of the 1960s and their relationship to the European and American avant-gardes (with an emphasis on literature, art and music). This lecture is made possible by the International Exchange Agreement between SDSU and the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid.

View Flyer (.pdf)

Fall 2008

FREE screening of Italian documentary film L'Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio (2006) - with English subtitles - followed by a Q&A interview with director Agostino Ferrente - Saturday, November 8, 6pm, Little Theatre, SDSU.

While rounding up musicians from a thriving immigrant neighborhood in Rome, in order to create the eclectic Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio, musician Mario Tronco and filmmaker Agostino Ferrente, capture their heartwarming individual stories. For many members of the group -- made up of Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus and atheists from 11 countries -- making music is as second nature as breathing.

This FREE event is sponsored by the Italian Program at SDSU in collaboration with the San Diego Italian Film Festival, the Italian Cultural Center of San Diego, the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, and the House of Italy in Balboa Park.

For information email cclo@mail.sdsu.edu, SDIFF@gmail.com

San Diego Italian Film Festival (SDIFF) presents:
Fifteen recent Italian Films with English subtitlesFREE
Muuseum of Photographic Arts (MoPa) in Balboa Park
October 3-19, 2008

View Flyer (.doc)

Summer 2008

Film

San Diego Italian Film Festival Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park

In October, the San Diego Italian Film Festival is once again partnering with the Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA), in Balboa Park, to screen 20 FREE Italian movies with English subtitles capped by a Gala Dinner. The films are shown through a collaboration with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura of Los Angeles. As a lead-up to the October Festival we are now screening a Free mini series at the MoPA.

FREE mini-series NOW screening at MoPA These films are known here as “Spaghetti Westerns” but in Italy as “Westerns all’Italiana”. All three are directed by Sergio Leone and star Clint Eastwood, with music by Ennio Morricone.

A Fistful of Dollars Thursday, June 5 7 pm
For a Few Dollars More Thursday, July 3 7 pm
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Thursday, August 7 7 pm

View flyer

Contest

The San Diego Italian Film Festival announces a FILM/VIDEO CONTEST for 2008. Winning films will be screened at the Festival in October 2008 at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park.

$3,500 in prizes. Deadline for submission September 1st 2008.

Three Entry Categories and Prizes:

I.      Senior in High School or below in June 2008. Italian Theme. (3 prizes)
II.     Freshman in College or above in June 2008. Italian Theme. (3 prizes)
III.    Open to anyone. Ferrari motors theme (in celebration of Ferrari 60th
birthday) (1 prize)

For application and information write to SDItFF@GMAIL.COM

http://www.sandiegoitalianfilmfestival.com/index.html

View flyer

Spring 2008

Lecture

The Italian Program and the Circolo italiano at SDSU present
A CONVERSATION WITH SOPRANO INDRA THOMAS
Thursday April 17 at 2pm - SDSU BA 441

View flyer

Film

The San Diego Italian Film Festival and Allied Advertising, PR, invite all
teachers and students to a FREE SCREENING by invitation of

MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD (Mio Fratello è Figlio Unico, 2007),
on Tuesday, April 29, 2008, at 7 p.m. at the Landmark Theater’s Hillcrest Cinemas in Hillcrest, 3965 Fourth Ave., San Diego, between Washington and University. There is underground parking. The theater will validate. 

Each ticket provides free entry for two people. NB:  While the ticket grants permission to enter, it does not guarantee a seat, so please come to the theater early. View ticket

For further information please contact The San Diego Italian Film Festival at SDItFF@GMAIL.COM

MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD is a politically charged family drama set in Italy in the 1960s and 1970s - think "The Best of Youth" (director Daniele Luchetti collaborated with that epic film's writers) at a more butt-friendly running time. The focus is on Accio (Elio Germano), who rebels against his older brother Manrico (Riccardo Scamarcio), a Communist leader in their small Italian town, by enlisting with the local fascists. Accio also loves his brother's girlfriend (Diane Fleri). Manrico eventually becomes disillusioned with politics, but Accio drifts over to the left with tragic results in this intelligent, well-acted movie. In Italian with English subtitles. Running time: 100 minutes. Not rated (violence, sexuality).

Daniele Luchetti's MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD scored five David di Donatello (the Italian Oscar) awards. The film earned Elio Germano (left photo, bottom) a best actor trophy for his role as a young man who gets involved in Italy’s neo-Fascist movement, in addition to awards for best screenplay (Luchetti, Stefano Rulli, and Sandro Petraglia), best supporting actress (Angela Finocchiaro), best editing (Mirco Garrone), and best sound (Bruno Pupparo).

Film

The San Diego Italian Film Festival is coming back to MoPA in Balboa Park with one free film a month (all start at 7pm)
View Flyer

Ginger and Cinnamon  (Dillo con Parole Mie),Thursday, February 14
While vacationing on the Greek "Isle of Love", a repressed 30 year old Stefania reluctantly plays chaperon to her precocious 14 year old niece, Meggy, who plans to lose her virginity before the summer is over.

Agatha & the storm (Agata e la Tempesta), Thursday, March 6                     
A swirl of pop-art color, madcap magic, and the bittersweet call of life and love suddenly take the mature, ravishing, self-reliant Agata by storm. When Agata, the popular bookshop proprietor and dispenser of sunny wisdom in the form of books, is suddenly wooed by a man almost half her age, her electricity hits high-voltage.

Light of my eyes (Luce dei miei Occhi), Thursday, April 3
Antonio is a fallen angel, a rootless chauffeur in Rome, who relates only to the lonely heroes in the pulp science fiction novels he grew up with. Only through a chance encounter with Maria, a woman struggling to hold onto her daughter and her business, does he discover a hope that's been lacking in his detached existence.

CLASSIC AND MARVELOUS CINEMA PARADISO, Thurs, May 8, 7pm
A delightful look at the life and times of cinema in a small Sicilian town in the early 1950s. A young boy becomes apprentice to a projectionist whose lessons bridge everyday life with life on celluloid.

All films are free, donations welcome. Films introduced and discussions led by Prof. C. Clò, SDSU and Prof. P. Verdicchio, UCSD.

Special thanks to the IIC, Mopa and the Linnie Cooper Foundation

A series of three Italian films with English titles will be presented at the Italian Community Center in Little Italy. The theme of the movies is: Italian Women through Italian Cinema. Three great Italian actresses--Anna Magnani, Sofia Loren, and Claudia Cardinale--are featured. The films will be introduced by Clarissa Clo', Director of the Italian Language Program at SDSU.
 
What      A series of three Italian films with English subtitles
 
Where    ICC
              1669 Columbia Street
              San Diego (In Little Italy)
              619 237 0601
              www@icc-sd.org
 
When    
Friday    January 25    6:30 pm    Roma citta' aperta  - Anna Magnani
Friday    February 29  6:30 pm    La fortuna di essere donna -  Sofia Loren
Friday    March 28      6:30 pm    La ragazza con la valigia  - Claudia Cardinale

View the film flyer (.pdf)

Fall 2007

Lecture

Lecture by Professor Laura Ruberto (Berkeley City College) entitled “Le gambe nude di Silvana: Rice workers, sexuality and popular Images in Postwar Italy” Thursday, Oct. 18, 2-3pm,  221 Hepner Hall

Professor Ruberto will discuss Giuseppe De Santis’ film Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice, 1949) which both promoted and glamorized the oppressive hard work of Italian female rice weeders. Laura E. Ruberto is the author of Gramsci, Migration, and the Representation of Women at Work (Lexington Books, 2007) and co- editor with Kristi M. Wilson of Italian Neorealism and Global Cinema (Wayne State UP, 2007).

This event is sponsored by an IRA grant.

For information contact cclo@mail.sdsu.edu

Conference: Italian Neorealism And Global Cinema

Presentation and discussion of the book ITALIAN NEOREALISM AND GLOBAL CINEMA edited by Laura E. Ruberto and Kristi M. Wilson, Wayne State UP, 2007. Thur. October 18, 19:30 Museum of Photographic Arts, Balboa Park.

Panel Chair: Clarissa Clo' (SDSU); Panelists: book editors Laura Ruberto (Berkeley City College) and Kristi Wilson (Stanford) and book contributors Pasquale Verdicchio (UCSD) and Tomas Crowder-Taraborrelli (Stanford).

http://wsupress.wayne.edu/film/worldcinema/wilsonrf/wilsonb.html

Italian Film Festival

The Italian Program is a sponsor for CINEMA SUD, an Italian Film Festival held at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park, October 12-25, 2007.

For more information visit http://www.cinemasud.com/

Concert

FIAMMA FUMANA in Concert in San Diego Italian Folk with a Contemporary Attitude

Thursday, September 27 at Acoustic Music San Diego 4650 Mansfield Street, San Diego, CA 92116, (619) 303-8176 - www.acousticmusic.com

6 pm - Workshop with the band sponsored by the Italian Community Center, the Italian Program and the Circolo Italiano at San Diego State University.

During workshop musicians will discuss the Italian folk tradition which inspires the band - i.e. the traditional folk songs of the female rice weeders of Northern Italy, the songs of the resistance movement during WW II etc. - the traditional instruments they have incorporated in their contemporary music, such as the bagpipes and the accordion, and will offer a brief demostration.

Fiamma is Italian for "flame" = the energy of the present. Fumana means "fog" or "mist" = the mysterious resilience of the past. A predominantly female ensemble, this group is on a continuing mission to remember what is today being forgotten in their local culture and bring the songs to pop music. (www.fiamma.org)

Fiamma Fumana: Canti delle mondine ed elettronica, insieme in un connubio
geniale e potente. Smuoverebbe un sordo, ma con classe. From: "Womex 2005" su World Music Magazine n. 75 anno XV

Spring 2007

Italian Creative Artists in the Diaspora

Performance (in English with songs all in Amharic) In the shadow of the shameless branches laden with bright red flowers April 28, 2007 at 4 pm at the Malcom X library (5148 Market Street) The library's location is: http://www.sandiego.gov/public-library/locations View flyer Lecture Creative Writing in the African Italian Diaspora by Italo-Ethiopian writer Gabriella Ghermandi. May 1, 2007 at 12 at The Backdoor, Aztec Center, SDSU

Gabriella Ghermandi was born in Addis Ababa in 1965 and moved to Italy in 1979. She lives in Bologna, her father's hometown. In 1999 she won first prize in the migrant writers' competition sponsored by the multicultural association Eks&Tra, and in 2001 she won third prize. She has published many short stories in journals and anthologies. She is one of the editors of El-Ghibli the first Italian online journal of migrant literature which she co-founded.

Her recital, entitled "In the shadow of the shameless branches laden with bright red flowers" ("All'ombra dei rami sfacciati carichi di fiori rosso vermiglio"), is in the typical metaphorical Ethiopian style which literally refers to certain events and people while also alluding to others. In this performance, the subject is Ethiopia, but the narration also chastizes the image of Italy supplied by media tycoon and former prime minister Berlusconi's private televisions.

Lecture and photographic slide show Tina Modotti: Between Art and Revolution by History Professor Letizia Argenteri of San Diego Mesa College. March 15 at 12:00pm at The Backdoor, SDSU Aztec Center.

Flyer for the Event (Adobe Reader needed to view pdf)

Tina Modotti (1896-1942) emigrated with her family from the Northern Italian region of Friuli to California in the early 1900s. After taking up a variety of jobs from worker to charismatic actress and model, the native Italian became a visionary photographer and a political activist in Mexico, the Soviet Union and the Spanish civil war. She was a fascinating and controversial a figure in her lifetime as she has remained after her death.

Letizia Argenteri received her doctorate in Comparative Literature from the University of Milano and a Ph.D in History from UCLA. She is currently teaching history at San Diego Mesa College and is affiliated with the UCLA Center for the Study of Women. Her publications include: The involvement of monarchy with fascism / D’Annunzio and music/ Pirandello and his rapport with the fascist regime/ Italian, French and German nationalism/ History and Memory, and The presence of D’Annunzio in America.

Events sponsored by NIAF, the national Italian American Foundation