(UCLA) Department of Italian L`ITALIA EI DOCUMENTARI/ ITALY

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Italian
L’ITALIA E I DOCUMENTARI/ ITALY AND DOCUMENTARIES
Graduate Student Conference
January 15-16, 2016
Keynote Speakers:
Alina Marazzi (Film Director)
Paola Bonifazio (University of Texas, Austin)
Since the early 20 century, documentary films, ranging from Arturo Ambrosio’s Le
manovre degli Alpini (1906) to L’arte della guerra (2014) by Silvia Luzi and Luca
Bellino, have provided insight into the political and social reality, geography, and
history of Italy. Documentaries with various approaches and from different genres
have deeply influenced the way Italians and others view Italy and its natural and
urban landscapes, cultural diversity, and artistic and literary traditions. In Italy today,
the documentary film has become a powerful tool for representing and influencing
cultural and ethnic identities, political movements, and gender roles.
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The UCLA Department of Italian and the Italian Graduate Student Association
invite papers from all disciplines to investigate how documentaries—Italian
and non-Italian alike–have represented and constructed or reconstructed Italy,
Italians and Italian events through the ages, and have influenced or interacted
with other types of representation, media, research or knowledge.
We are particularly interested in understanding how their representations have
created conflicting portraits of Italy and its people. This conference also intends to
explore how documentaries interact with historical events and/or social and cultural
trends in Italy to shape realities and opinions.
Some documentaries search for “truth” by joining poetic invention and realistic
mimesis with real-life footage, often shedding new light on key issues or events
relevant to Italian life and history. One of the themes this conference seeks to
address is how the use of documentary-like film techniques has become a hallmark
of Italian cinema that has long defined the style of Italian filmmaking visionaries such
as Antonioni, Rossellini, and Pasolini.
TOPICS MAY INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:
Different Approaches to Documentaries:
Independent / commercial/educational / propagandistic/essayistic / poetic, etc.
Italian Documentary Filmmakers and their Work on Italy and Italians:
For example: Michelangelo Antonioni, Gente del Po (1943), Nettezza urbana (1948),
L’amorosa menzogna (1949); Fernando Cerchio, Comacchio (1942); Luigi
Comencini, Bambini in città, (1946); Vittorio De Seta, Lu tempu di li pisci spata
(1955), Surfarara (1955), Pastori a Orgosolo (1958), Pescherecci (1958); Gianfranco
Mingozzi, Con il cuore fermo (1965), Sicilia (1965); Ermanno Olmi, Tre fili fino a
Milano (1959), Un metro è lungo cinque (1961); Francesco Pasinetti, Venezia
minore (1942); Pier Paolo Pasolini, Comizi d’amore (1963), 12 dicembre (1972);
Folco Quilici, Basilicata e Calabria (1967); Dino Risi, Barboni (1946); Roberto
Rossellini, La nave bianca (1941), L’età del ferro (1965), Idea di un’isola (1967);
Daniele Segre, Crotone, Italia (1993); Roberta Torre, Palermo Bandita (1996), La
notte quando è morto Pasolini (2009); Fausto Fornari and Cesare Zavattini, Lettere
dei condannati a morte della resistenza italiana (1953).
Italian Medieval and Renaissance Artists and their Myths Seen in
Documentaries:
For example: Piero Angela, Leonardo Da Vinci (2012); Michael Bouson, The Secret
Life of Leonardo Da Vinci (2006); Peter Capaldi, Inside the Mind of Leonardo
(2013); Luciano Emmer and Enrico Gras, Il dramma di Cristo (1948), Giotto (1969),
Piero della Francesca (1949); Sammy Lee, Leonardo: Portrait of a Genius (1943);
Mario Martone, Caravaggio (2004), L’ultimo tempo (2004); Gian Luigi Rondi,
Raffaello in casa (1963); Kurt Oertel, The Titan (1938), Michelangelo (1950).
Between the Documentary and the Poetic/Fiction or Historical Film:
For example: films by Antonioni, Cavani, Maselli, Risi, Rossellini, the Taviani
brothers, and Zavattini. In addition, films such as Francesco De Roberti, Uomini sul
fondo (1941); Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi, Dal Polo all’Equatore
(1986); Alberto Lattuada, L'amore in città (1953), Ermanno Olmi, Il mestiere delle
armi (2001).
Documentary Films in the Fascist Era:
For example: Cinegiornali Luce; Corrado D’Errico, Il cammimo degli eroi (1936);
Roberto Omegna, Gloria (1934).
Propaganda, War/Anti-War, and Political Documentaries:
For example: Andrea Cairola and Susan Gray, Citizen Berlusconi (2003); Frank
Capra, Why We Fight (1942-45); Luca Comerio, L’avanzata decisiva in Libia (1912),
La vita degli ascari eritrei (1912); Giuseppe De Santis, Marcello Pagliero, Luchino
Visconti, Giorni di gloria (1945); Roberto Faenza, Silvio Forever (2011); John
Huston, The Battle of San Pietro (1944).
Gendered Tales and Female Documentarians:
For example: Liliana Cavani, La donna nella resistenza (1965), Clarisse (2012);
Francesca Comencini, Elsa Morante (1977); Cecilia Mangini, Essere donne (1965),
Comizi d’amore ’80 (1983); Alina Marazzi, Un’ora sola ti vorrei (2002), Vogliamo
anche le rose (2007), Tutto parla di te (2012); Lorella Zanardo, Il corpo delle donne
(2009).
Global Perspectives:
For example: Documentaries by and on Italian-Americans; depictions of Italy and
Italians from abroad; documentaries about immigration. For example: Gianfranco
Norelli, Pane amaro/Bitter Bread (2009); Andrea Segre, Mare Chiuso (2012).
Please submit an abstract (300 words maximum) to
[email protected] with contact information (name,
affiliation, and email address) by October 15, 2015.