3,817 research outputs found
In the "Old Country": Memories to Pass On
No full textThe paper relates the findings of an oral history project on the Italian immigration to Fredonia, a small town in Western New York, carried out by the author, and argues in favor of the use of digital audio-visual technology as opposed to the more traditional audio-recording approach in oral history research. The author sets out to show how in fact the use of digital video enabled the surfacing of a performative element in the interviewees which underlines their determined effort to ennoble the stories of the immigrants’ original departure from the fatherland and their early settlement in the States. The essay also comments on the possibility of digitally archiving the recordings so as to allow for a continuous verification of the accuracy of the original written transcriptions, something that the more traditional analogue techniques did not easily enable
Perspectives on Procida. The Seafaring Island in the Bay of Naples
No full textThe book highlights the work pursued by the author in the creation of a documentary film on the island of Procida, in the bay of Naples. Representative frames and interviews from the film have been chosen so as to convey an overall idea of the major issues concerning the local culture and traditions such as seafaring, gold embroidery, sustainable tourism, and study abroad programs inspired by the recent experiential learning approach to education
Italians Who Have Made Rochester Their Home
No full textThe book reflects on the experiences of four Italian citizens who, after arriving in Rochester, New York, for work related reasons, decided to establish themselves there on a permanent basis. What differentiates these stories from those of thousands of other Italian immigrants who settled in Rochester from the end of the 19th Century is that they reflect a clear choice on the part of their authors to give up professional careers in Italy in favor of American ones. In this sense deciding to make their homes in a foreign country is a choice as opposed to a necessity
Artis, A. Q. (2014). The Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide. New York: Focal Press, pp. 369.
No full textReview of A. Q. Artis' documentary filmmaking textbook which underlines the importance of the work and how it could be used by non-media professionals to acquire a basic knowledge of documentary filmmaking
When Florence is the Place You Call Home
No full textDocumentary film on the relationship between cultural aspects of Florence, mass tourism, and the way the local inhabitants experience the city
Italians Expats in Western New York
No full textVideo testimonies of Italian expats regarding their lives in Rochester, New York
From Glory to Destruction: John Huston's Non-fictional Depictions of War
No full textDuring World War II John Huston became involved, together with other well-known Hollywood filmmakers, in the U.S. government propaganda film production. The essay contrasts Huston’s war documentaries with other propaganda films produced during the conflict, and argues that whereas Report from the Aleutians, Huston’s first non-fiction film, may be incorporated within the propaganda genre and depicts war as an instance where officers and soldiers may aspire to glory, his second documentary, San Pietro, breaks free of this label and shows the ultimate destruction which war brings about. The paper also details the predictably unfavorable reaction of the War Department to Huston’s anti-war stance, and the reasons why many years would have to pass before San Pietro and Let There Be Light, his subsequent war documentary, would be released for general viewing
Review of "Pieces of Someday. A Memoir by Jan Vallone"
No full textThe article is a review of 'Pieces of Someday', by Jan Vallone; it focuses on the importance of personal memoirs of non-celebrities as a source of information on relevant cultural issues of given countries. In this case the memoir underlines the importance of the family within the Italian American population, and how this sometimes contrasts with the goal of self-fullfilment stressed by American culture
Smartphone stylo. Connecting across cultures
No full textCon la diffusione degli smartphone abilitati alle riprese video, l’auspicio fatto nel
1948 dal regista francese Alexandre Astruc di usare la cinepresa come una penna
stilografica (la caméra stylo) così da creare film allo stesso modo in cui si scrivono
romanzi sembra finalmente avverarsi. È sottinteso, tuttavia, che per “scrivere” con
una videocamera non basta premere il tasto “record”: occorre impadronirsi di una
grammatica delle immagini in movimento per passare dalle riprese casuali all’articolazione
di un messaggio condivisibile con un pubblico. Se poi a questi filmati si
aggiungono i sottotitoli (operazione oggigiorno eseguibile con una certa facilità)
appare evidente come questo tipo di audiovisivo abbia la potenzialità di ingaggiare
spettatori appartenenti a svariati contesti culturali.
Data questa premessa, durante l’ultimo decennio ho incentrato la mia attività
didattica e scientifica presso l’Università di Siena e la University of Rochester (USA)
sull’utilizzo dell’audiovisivo come strumento per la comunicazione tra le culture
diverse. Il saggio che propongo illustra questa mia esperienza sia in Italia che
negli Stati Uniti, inquadrandola in un contesto più ampio, dove si valuteranno le
possibilità effettive di creare in ambito accademico micro-documentari finalizzati
alla comunicazione tra le culture.
La parte introduttiva del saggio affronterà l’evoluzione storica del cinema documentario
concentrandosi soprattutto sul cosiddetto observational documentary.
Successivamente, si analizzerà la proposta di Astruc inerente al caméra stylo, e le
conseguenze che quest’approccio ebbe sulla Nouvelle Vague francese (in questo
senso si valuterà anche il ruolo svolto dai registi del neorealismo italiano, e di
Roberto Rossellini in particolare). Dopodiché si esplorerà la vena autobiografica
nel documentario statunitense (Ross McElwee e Ralph Arlyck), così da ipotizzare
una sintesi tra documentario di osservazione e documentario autobiografico che
potrebbe risultare particolarmente adatta alla produzione di micro-documentari
per la comunicazione inter-culturale. Nell’intento di valutare quest’ipotesi verranno
esaminati alcuni micro- documentari prodotti sotto la mia guida durante l’ultimo
decennio dagli studenti dell’Università di Siena e dell’University of Rochester,
documentari che hanno di per sé una forte caratterizzazione multiculturale in
quanto realizzati da studenti provenienti da svariati paesi, tra cui la Cina. Tra gli
argomenti affrontati dagli studenti figura anche l’esperienza di lockdown causato
dalla recente pandemia. Questa incresciosa circostanza ha ribadito l’importanza di una comunicazione trans-culturale audiovisiva, e ci ha offerto una fondamentale
occasione di verifica dell’efficacia della stessaAfter conducting a seminar on cross-cultural communication at the University of
Siena in Arezzo for a group of students from the University of Wenzhou, China, it
became clear to me that in addition to the canon of traditional cinema, screening
short, student-made video documentaries regarding their personal realities was
an effective way of introducing the host culture to foreign visitors. This paper illustrates
how today it is possible to assist students in producing such documentaries
with relative ease. The essay is organized in three sections. It begins with a historical
overview of documentary cinema’s dedication to the representation of the
real world. Particular attention is paid to Albert Maysles’ and his contribution to
this goal and his role in Direct Cinema. It highlights how the use of compact and
more versatile filming equipment opened the way to an unobtrusive observation
of reality. Finally, we see how the development of digital video subsequently
helped Maysles better achieve his goal. In this initial section, the role of Alexandre
Astruc is also taken into consideration examining how his approach to non-fiction
cinema through a caméra stylo looks towards the possibility of ‘writing’ the
world, independently of traditional moviemaking. Amateur photography and
cinematography are also considered, as they, too, are key elements in the growth
of independent, auto-produced cinema. The following section of the paper
considers the importance of the transition from film to analogue video, and from
this to digital video illustrating how these transitions advanced the filmmaking
process to the point that today it is possible to use a smartphone and a personal
computer to create a movie. The final section is dedicated to specific examples
in my experience in teaching students how to create short documentaries, and
giving an outline of the ‘pre-production’, ‘production’ and ‘post-production’ phases
in filmmaking to use as a guideline in education
American Expats in Tuscany: Three Life Stories
No full textThis is about three American women who have decided to make Tuscany their permanent home. The volume contains the full versions of the interviews which are in a documentary with the same tile
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