Join us for a conversation with documentary filmmakers. This round table will explore issues related to Italian immigration to the United States, yesterday’s as well as today’s. As a country of historical emigration that has recently turned into a country of immigration from which, interestingly, young people are currently leaving once again to find opportunities abroad, Italy constitutes a unique lab to discuss issues of mobility and relocation. New documentaries capture the tension between outbound and inbound flows as well as the reverberations of the past onto the present. Through a visual language that blends a desire for documentation and a search for a dynamic aesthetic expression, these documentaries are both personal and collective, and not too surprisingly speak to the more general scenario of migration in the U.S. as well as global migrations more at large. The panel of film-makers will also include the screening of excerpts from their works.

Program
-Introductory remarks: Dr. Teresa Fiore (Inserra Chair, MSU)
-Speakers: John Maggio (Executive Producer, Producer/Director, Writer at Ark Media): “Filming and Producing The Italian Americans for PBS”; Cristian Piazza (Filmmaker): “The Making of WAITING: Stories from Recent Italian Immigrants”; Michele Petruzziello (Filmmaker/Photographer): “The Past in the Present: Photographs of Recent Italian Immigrants”

Event will take place in University Hall 7th Floor Conference Center. Registration required. To RSVP, visit the organizer website.