“Welcome to feStival 2014,” reads Victor Laruccia’s website announcement; “It’s an Italian Party in the Piazza.” So begins the 8th Annual San Diego Italian Film Festival beginning October 16 and running through the 25th.
The first offering is Anni Felici, Daniele Luchetti’s discerning look at his childhood through the antics and acting of the movie’s characters. The film festival will show 10 Italian movies, three of which are part of the Anita Laing Documentary Project. It will culminate with a Gala and Film Event on the 25th of October.
According to the Organizer of the Laing Memorial Project, the San Diego Italian Film Festival’s goal is to make San Diego a high spot for Italian Culture. “Italy gives the world culture, and we want to share that culture through the movies we bring directly from Italy; great, award winning, recent movies (with English subtitles), all with interesting stories of relations…and the passions of life.”
Laruccia, who is the Executive Director of the San Diego Italian Film Festival promises art, passion, music, love, justice and family, “all today’s important topics…with an Italian perspective.” He adds, “You won’t want to miss any of it.” Laruccia speaks very seriously about the film festival as being very appealing to 2nd and 3rd generation Italian-Americans who want to connect with their ancestral heritage and culture of Italy.
According to the director, there are many “Italians on board” who are the creative resources contributing to the SDIFF’s efforts.
Guest Director Angelo Bozzolini, who has recently come to San Diego, talks about Il carattere italiano, which is his second Documentary about Orchestral Music. He recalled his early beginnings in the movie industry, stating that he rose above the challenge of taking two years to go through channels to make the film.
“In the beginning, I worked on sets as an assistant director,” Bozzolini recalls. “I got my start with Claudio Abbado, who made me an offer to join in a movie event he was making in Calabria. I made a shorter documentary, and from that experience I got connected in classical music. It was from there that I wanted to make a long documentary about an orchestra.”
Director Bozzolini brings a new insight, into the lives, motivations, anxieties and triumphs of orchestra members, as well as its brilliant conductor Antonio Pappano. Bozzolini shows them rehearse, travel and reflect on how they achieve success, collectively through the transformative act of performance. Guest appearances, both live and in archival footage, include the well-known musical talents of Yuri Temirkanov, James Conlon and Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Janine Jansen, Lisa Batiashvili, Evgeny Kissin, Stefano Bollani, and Lang Lang.
Una piccola impresa meridionale (A Small Southern Enterprise), directed by Rocco Papaleo, brings the SDIFF to its close with this last movie and a Gala Dinner event which begins at 5:30, followed by the film. The dinner will consist of an all-new menu of sumptuous Italian specialties, choice wines and of course, Italian desserts. While dining, guests will enjoy the evening music of the Jim Bianchi Band, featuring singer Rosario Monetti. The event will be held in the newly remodeled Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA).
According to Larrucia, who is also the President of the Italian American Art and Culture Association of San Diego, “This is a party dedicated to the culture that ties us to each other, and to the generations emerging from that splendid bath, the Italian heritage of style, flavor, and love. He encourages guests to strengthen connections, treat your senses, and give the festival a rousing send-off – Italian style.”
Venues for the movies are; The Museum of Photographic Art (MOPA) in Balboa Park, La Paloma Theater on South Coast Highway 101 in Encinitas, and at the Ultra-Star in Hazard Center Mission Valley.
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