41° Parallelo | Casa Italiana Zerilli / Marimò

41° Parallelo

Screening
Mon, 11/25/2019 - 6:30pm
Short Films from the Naples Film Festival
still from Ciruzziello

In collaboration with the Naples Film Festival.

The following films were selected specifically for Casa Italiana by a special jury made up of students of the NYU Department of Italian Studies:

Ciruzziello by Ciro D'Aniello (11 min.)
An old woman takes care of her paralyzed son in a big apartment by the sea. When diagnosed with terminal cancer, she starts to feel there is no hope for them, and even God seems to be deaf to their prayers. The director Ciro D’Aniello and the vibrant performance of Isa Danieli create an intimate and powerful drama where viewers can viscerally feel the loneliness and desperation of the main character, who is fighting to remain positive in front of the beauty of the sea.

La gita by Salvatore Allocca (14 min.)
Magalie is an immigrant teenager with a crush on the schoolmate she’s helping to pass a math test. She dreams of going on the school trip to Paris, while living in a reality steeped with prejudice and racism. Salvatore Allocca portrays a gentle and deep main character split between her dreams and the struggles of her family. La gita is a faithful and delicate tale about social justice, love and the desire to escape a world of inequality. Even simply by bus….

Alma by Michelangelo Fornaro (11 min.)
Three chapters tied together to explain the very essence of humanity: the loneliness of the single but also the warmth of having someone next to you, maybe even just to share a glass of wine on a rainy evening. Michelangelo Fornaro uses stop-motion and other forms of animation in order to portray an intimate and moving journey through feelings and melancholic atmospheres. The result is a hypnotic short movie where what you bring into it is as important as the characters and the settings.

La scelta by Giuseppe Alessio Nuzzo (13 min.)
Filming through an impressive long shot, the director Giuseppe Alessio Nuzzo tells the story of an actress who has been struggling with an illness for years. La scelta shows what it means to be a woman who doesn’t give up even when an ordinary day seems to be almost unbearable. The sensitivity of the atmosphere matches perfectly with the vibrant performances of the two main actresses, Cristina Donadio and Gina Amarante. A painful and moving story depicting a poignant female character.

Scenario by Jay Ruggiano (23 min.)
In a modern society where people are increasingly disconnected and incapable of opening up to genuine relationships, we need to rebel against the forces keeping us apart. Using editing in order to put together different characters and timelines, Jay Ruggiano shows us the dark side of television and social media when we use them to replace true human interaction and to fill the void created by the lack of social connection. The solution is to go outside, meet people, and embrace the future with all the energy we have.

The Noisy Silence by Agostino Fontana (14 min.)
Agostino Fontana brings the audience into a drama taking place between domestic walls. A family is ruined by an abusive father who is responsible for a shameful secret that will haunt his son for years. The Noisy Silence is built like an obscure nightmare, where no words can fully express the horror of a derailed environment where the safety of home turns into a place of pain and trauma.

Total duration: 86 minutes

All films are in ENGLISH or in ITALIAN with ENGLISH SUBTITLES.