In April, the Italian Film Festival USA –now in its 20th year– made MSU’s East Lansing campus one of the successful stops in its nationwide tour. The Festival USA (link: https://italianfilmfests.org/detroit.html) is organized by a nonprofit organization based in St. Louis, working to provide the public with an opportunity to learn more about Italy; its land, people, culture, and language. The Italian Film Festival USA is the largest festival dedicated exclusively to Italian film in the USA and is present in 14 cities from coast to coast.

Italian professor Carmen De Lorenzo, coordinator of the RCS Italian program and a member of the Film Festival Committee, brought the festival to our campus for a fourth year. Organization and publicity were made possible by the student volunteers of the MSU Italian Club and Prof. De Lorenzo’s colleagues, professors Valentina Denzel and Jessica Toby. Additional support was provided by the Department of Romance and Classical Studies, The Michigan Arts and Culture Council, The Istituto di Cultura Chicago, The Dante Alighieri Society Michigan Chapter, and The Italian Consulate in Detroit.

The 2024 Festival brought a stellar line-up of eight short pieces and three recent feature-length films, including a comedy, a drama and dramedy. All screenings in the Italian Film Festival USA have English subtitles and are free and open to the public.

The festival schedule:

Short Films

Friday, April 5, 7:30 p.m.

• Recomaterna (Eternal Rest) (2023)
  Chiara, a 10-year-old girl, throws a stone at her little brother. Frightened, she runs away and hides at grandma Enza’s house. To distract her, the woman will tell her a ghost story revealing an important truth.
  
• Il mare che muove le cose (The Sea That Moves Things) (2022)
  Massimo is the owner of a beach resort where he lives with his wife and two daughters. Once he discovers he has Parkinson’s disease, it’s an encounter with an African boy that will give him hope.
  
• Tracce perdute (Lost Traces) (2022)
  An old inspector and a clumsy assistant investigate the mysterious disappearance of an elderly man. There are no traces of his family and a kidnapping is suspected. To solve the mystery they’ll need to go further through his family history.
  
• Sky(pe) (2024)
  From heaven, a father manages to video-call his son.
  
• Menomale (Just as Well) (2023)
  25-year-old nurse Peppe has to help his girlfriend Anna move to the town where she is going to work as a teacher. On a warm September afternoon, the couple will try to figure out what will become of their young love story.
  
• Ignoti (2023)
  Zena and her son Maurizio never miss an evening TV show where participants have to guess family relationships based on common traits. When she mentions her wish to take part in the show, her son tries to dissuade her.
  
• La neve coprirà tutte le cose (The Snow Will Cover All Things) (2022)
  In a whirlwind of conflicting emotions, a couple struggles to find balance while waiting for an event that could change their lives.
  
• Lisianthus (2024)
  Teo and his grandmother Alda start accepting online orders to restore the business of their flower shop. Once they have to handle the correspondence of two lovers, Teo will feel very involved in the fate of this love story.

Billy (Paradise) (2023)

Saturday, April 6, at 5:00 p.m.
Billy was a child prodigy who invented and hosted a successful music podcast at nine years old. He is now 19, lives with his eccentric mother, is secretly in love with a girl and doesn’t know what to do with his life. A meeting with his childhood idol, a rocker who has been missing for years, will lead him to find a new way to face the future. But what we desire so much doesn’t always go as we would like. 

Cento domeniche (A Hundred Sundays) (2023)

Saturday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m.
Antonio leads a quiet life: he takes care of his elderly mother, he has an ex-wife with whom he maintains an excellent relationship and Emilia, his beloved daughter. When the latter announces that she has decided to get married, Antonio believes he can give her the wedding they have always dreamed of, counting on his life savings. Too bad that the bank where he keeps his money seems to be hiding something.

Zamora (2023)

Sunday, April 7, 7:30 p.m.
Walter, an accountant at heart and on the job, is forced to transfer from his small town and take a position in a Milan company. The owner, who is passionate about soccer, makes his employees engage in weekly soccer games. Walter, who doesn’t like soccer, offers to be the goalie. But he allows too many goals and his colleagues rename him “Zamora”, comparing him to the great Spanish goalkeeper of the 1930s.

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