friday night italian film festival:
Italian film is as much a part of Italian culture as the food, music and people! The Italian Film Festival celebrates the 41st year the Italian Cultural Society has presented these special Italian and Italian-American films.
Each film starts at 7:30pm - bring your family and friends and enjoy the social time before the film (doors open at 7:00pm) and join in the discussion after! The Italian Film Festival begins annually, showing each film only one time. The first films screen in September and October, then continue in January, February, and April, with the final film screening in May. The Friday Night Film Festival Series is organized by ICS Member Bob Masullo.
The Italian Cultural Society Presents
FRIDAY NIGHT ITALIAN FILM SERIES
"Italian Cinema is as much a part of Italian culture as the food, music and people."
"Respiro"
Friday, September 20, 2024
8:00 pm
Admission $10
At the Italian Center:
6821 Fair Oaks Blvd, Carmichael 95608
Winner of the Critics Week Grand Prize at the Cannes film festival.
Welcome to Lampedusa, a Mediterranean island paradise as mysterious as it is beautiful, surrounded by crystal clear water where ocean waves pound deep caverns into the rocky seaside cliffs. Into this scenic location lives Grazia, a carefree mother of three who becomes the focus of her neighbor’s gossip.
While her fellow Lampedusians work and live hard, oblivious to their island paradise, Grazia blissfully embraces life’s treasures. Her wild and free-spirited behavior reflects the beauty of her seaside village. But will she drive her friends and neighbors crazy or draw them into her topsy-turvy world and win their hearts. Stars Valeria Golino.
In Italian with English subtitles
Refreshments included
Doors open at 7:30pm
CLICK HERE TO WATCH FILM TRAILER
Films are shown at 7:30 pm on the designated dates
All films presented at the Italian Center, 6821 Fair Oaks Blvd., Carmichael 95608
Film Admission is $10
Door open 30 minutes early!
Refreshments Included
The Italian Cultural Society Presents
FRIDAY NIGHT ITALIAN FILM SERIES
"Italian Cinema is as much a part of Italian culture as the food, music and people."
"Vendetta"
Friday, October 4, 2024
8:00 pm
Admission $10
At the Italian Center
6821 Fair Oaks Blvd, Carmichael 95608
Based on a true story that led to the first National Columbus Day holiday in 1892. The setting is New Orleans in 1891. The scene of the largest mass lynching in American History.
Sicilian immigrant families entered the United States heavily through the Port of New Orleans after the US Civil War. With the end of slavery, a new source of cheap labor was imported from impoverished sections of Italy. Some of the immigrants in New Orleans were able to amass wealth and influence and begin to control the docks and the markets in the city. This threat to elite local businessmen and politicians led to one of the largest mass executions of Italian immigrants. After being wrongfully accused of a crime, 19 Italians were rounded up including the leading Italian merchant, but all were acquitted in court. A prejudiced and angry mob of thousands, including the mayor storms the jail and executes 11 “Dagoes”.
The film stars Christopher Walken as a cotton dealer seeking to wrest control of the docks from the Italians and the ringleader of this painful episode in Italian American history.
The film is a full-length motion picture and not a documentary.
Refreshments included
Doors open at 7:30pm
The events portrayed in the film changed the course of Italian American history. Italy broke off diplomatic relations with the US over the treatment of Italian immigrants. The use of the word “Mafia” first came into use as an excuse to lynch the Italians. From the 1890s to the 1920s some 50 Italians were lynched by mobs, the largest ethnic group to be lynched in America after Black Americans.
The significance of this event led the President of the United States at the time to declare a national Columbus Day holiday to heal the nation, a day which became the single most unifying symbol of Italian American pride and identity.
CLICK TO READ 'New Orleans Apologizes For Lynching of Italian Americans'