Beautiful evening in honor of worldliness and culture at the Italian Cultural Centre Ballroom of Vancouver for the presentation of the documentary “Finding Joseph Tusiani – the Poet of Two Lands” directed by Sabrina Digregorio.
Figure of reprieve in the world of Italian-American literature, Joseph Tusiani has received numerous literary awards in Europe, as in America — the last of which being that of being named New York State Poet Laureate Emeritus, on January 9th, 2016. That which has the greatest impact of the work of Sabrina Digregorio on Joseph Tusiani is her capacity to bring to light the great sensitivity and brilliance of the poet himself. The documentary accompanies the viewer on a voyage backwards across and through memory and all phases of poetic justice. Poetry, in fact, at its maximum potential becomes the Virgilio of this narrative in which destinies, contemporary stories and literature intermix themselves into a commingling which is altogether moving. Between one line and the next, it traces between the genesis of the great migration and what one discovers at the same time as the intense story of love between Frances Winwar (Francesca Vinciguerra) and Joseph Tusiani, a memorable and touching encounter made of elective affinities and poetry that will forever change their destinies.
As Digregorio asserts: “The choice of telling the story of a human drama, the story of a poet also through the intermingling of two so-called non-verbal languages, poetry and film together, is a way of protecting the memory of the story through emotionalizing. Through the form of a dialogue, a horizontal structure to supersede the old way of building storytelling, I wanted to tell the living life story of this highly renowned author. We discover and become emotional discovering the author through the encounter which occurs between two different generations and cultures. Daiana Giorgi converses with him, asking questions in order to discover him and reveals his biography thereby. All of this takes form through poetry that has true evocative power, that has the capacity to evoke the life and livings of the subject. Poetry becomes a hymn to life, in an intimate light and researched atmosphere.”
The screening took place under the patronage of the General Consolate of Italy in Vancouver, via the presence of Consulate Massimiliano Iacchini, of the Federation of Pugliesi Social Clubs of British Columbia, of the Region of Puglia, with the presence of President Michele Emiliano, and in collaboration with the COMITES and the Cultural Centre of Vancouver.
“The biography of a true and real man of two worlds, but as he is highlighted with the great sensitivity of director Sabrina Digregorio, even through the story of a path throughout which solitude and absence are alternated in notoriety, through success and recognition”, declared Gianluca Biscardi, the Cultural Officer of the General Italian Consulate.
“It is a film of extraordinary cultural value, that came into existence with the purpose of letting the extraordinary work and being of Joseph Tusiani be known and appreciated by the Italian and international pubic” – elaborated Consul Massimiliano Iacchini.
“In una casa un’altra casa trovo” (In one house another house I find) is the title of Joseph Tusiani’s autobiography, and it is within this lens that the narrative structure of the film develops, the story of the extraordinary actuality of a lived emigration which is felt like a drama, like an obliged solitude, like a pain which at times even the greatest success won’t succeed in dissolving.
The event was concluded with the reception Gala in the Ballroom of the Italian Cultural Center, where the entertainment was curated from the greatest down to the tiniest details, from the grand banquet table down to the restrooms. The gratitude for having organized this wonderful event of tasting goes to the Puglia Social Clubs Federation of British Columbia that over many years lavishes itself with the initiative “Tastes of Italy” to present and expand awareness of the typical and original tastes of “Made in Puglia”, with the patronage of the General Consulate of Italy in Vancouver. The producer and director Sabrina Digregorio, Eurybia Films, is taking the film to varied screening rooms and cinemas, also in the United States of America, and is actually at work on another film project which will soon see her back in Vancouver.
ON DEMAND via vimeo: www.findingjosephtusiani.com