iItaly.org

Goong-Goong is a remarkable book. Not exactly a memoir, or history, and not really even about its author, Patrizia Chen, who grew up with all the traditions of an Italian family. Goong-Goong is a journey of discovery about her in-laws’ family and their remarkable patriarch.

Hailed as one of the greatest movies ever made, Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (1948) defined an era in cinema. In poverty-stricken postwar Rome, a man is on his first day of a new job—which offers the hope of salvation for his desperate family—when his bicycle, which he needs for work, is stolen. With his young son in tow, he sets out to track down the thief. Simply constructed and rich in human insight, Bicycle Thieves embodies the greatest strengths of Italian neorealism: emotional clarity, social rectitude, and brutal honesty.

Over the course of 130 years, Italian American Catholics in New York City have developed a varied repertoire of devotional art and architecture to create community-based sacred spaces in their homes and neighborhoods. These spaces exist outside of but in relationship to the consecrated halls of local parishes and are sites of worship in conventionally secular locations. Such ethnic building traditions and urban ethnic landscapes have long been neglected by all but a few scholars.

New Italian Cinema Events (N.I.C.E.) Film Festival celebrates its 28th edition in the United States.

The touch of Maestro Zeffirelli can be seen through the frescoes of Florence in the 1930’s, although the atmosphere is enchanting, it also touches on the atrocities of war. In honor of the Maestro, it is now possible to visit the Franco Zeffirelli International Center for Performing Arts Foundation in Florence, which is also a tribute to his 70 years of undisputed international film, theater and music career

New Italian Cinema Events (N.I.C.E.) Film Festival celebrates its 28th edition in the United States.Francesco Falaschi addresses the issue of Asperger syndrome by showing the difficulties faced by those who suffer from the condition. This is an emotional comedy that despite the delicate main subject, does not fall into pathetic cliches or attainable intellectual ambitions.