Italiano Lingua Geniale: A Full Day Celebration of the Italian Language and Culture @The University of Auckland

 

Also Part of the programme:

Italian Excellence: Pinocchio's New Clothes – Digital Exhibition

A bilingual digital exhibition (Eccellenze italiane. I vestiti nuovi di Pinocchio), first unveiled at the Bologna Children's Book Fair (BCBF). Curated by Accademia Drosselmeier, the exhibition is supported by the National Committee for the Bicentenary of Carlo Collodi's Birth and the Carlo Collodi National Foundation.

Discover the Art of Gilding – Mini Workshop by Studio Izzo

Get creative with Studio Izzo! Join this hands-on mini workshop and discover the traditional art of gilding, with the opportunity to try decorating small objects with gold leaf.

And in the evening...

Join us for seven new Italian short films (in Italian with English subtitles) courtesy of the Italian Embassy and the Italian Short Film Center. More info here.

Venue: University of Auckland, Building 207-501 (Pat Hanan Room)
19 October, 6 pm
Screening followed by prosecco, pizza, and discussion!

Colazione di marzo: Che lingua parli? Varieties of Italian in Auckland

La colazione del 28 marzo sarà speciale!

Il 28 marzo presenteremo il mini-documentario Che lingua parli?, realizzato con gli studenti del secondo anno dell’Università di Auckland e dedicato all’italofonia.

Il progetto ha rappresentato un’esperienza di apprendimento nuova e coinvolgente, accolta con grande entusiasmo dagli studenti, che hanno contribuito a una vera e propria iniziativa di documentazione linguistica. Hanno infatti individuato una persona di origine italiana, preparato e condotto un’intervista in italiano seguendo una traccia flessibile, registrato e montato il materiale raccolto e partecipato alla realizzazione di un documentario collettivo.

Il risultato è un film amatoriale di 40 minuti, curato con il prezioso supporto di Mike Hurst, Senior Technician della Faculty of Arts. Dopo un'anteprima in occasione della Settimana della Lingua Italiana nel Mondo 2025, sarà ora presentato a tutti i partecipanti, alla comunità e ai simpatizzanti. 

Sarà un’ottima occasione per scoprire le tante varietà regionali dell’italiano — dai dialetti parlati nelle zone di confine con l’Austria al celebre napoletano, dal savonese al bel parlare fiorentino, dal veneto e dal parmigiano ai dialetti dell’Italia centrale.

Il documentario è anche una riflessione anche sulle strategie che aiutano a preservare una cosa preziosa come la lingua madre: trasmetterla alle nuove generazioni, condividerla con gli amici, insegnarla, giocarci e anche farne una professione.

È un progetto in cui abbiamo messo grande passione e impegno.

Venite a vederlo!

Sat 28 March
10am-12pm
Dante Rooms
Freemans Bay Community Centre

The 28 March Breakfast Will Be Special!

On 28 March we will present the mini-documentary Che lingua parli? created with second-year students from the University of Auckland and dedicated to the Italian-speaking community.

The project was a new and engaging learning experience, received with great enthusiasm by the students who took part in a genuine linguistic documentation initiative. They identified a person of Italian origin, prepared and conducted an interview in Italian using a flexible framework, recorded and edited the material, and contributed to the production of a collective documentary.

The result is a 40-minute amateur film, produced with the invaluable support of Mike Hurst, Senior Technician in the Faculty of Arts. After a preview during the Week of the Italian Language in the World 2025, it will now be presented to all participants, members of the community, and supporters.

It will be a great opportunity to explore the many regional varieties of Italian — from dialects spoken near the Austrian border to the famous Neapolitan, from Savonese to refined Florentine speech, from Veneto and Parmigiano to the dialects of central Italy. 

The documentary also reflects on the strategies that help preserve something as precious as a mother tongue: passing it on to new generations, sharing it with friends, teaching it, playing with it, and even turning it into a profession.

It is a project into which we have put great passion and commitment.

Come and watch it!

Cine Dante: Habemus Papam

 

Habemus Papam, by Nanni Moretti, 2011

30 May 2025, 6 pm, Building 201, Room 265 The University of Auckland

 

This month, we take a break from our ‘journey’ films to screen a very timely film. Almost fifteen years before Conclave, acclaimed Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti made an exceptional film that focused not just on the selection of the Pope, but on the human side of the diverse group of cardinals involved in the process and the inevitable deep feelings of doubt experienced by the person elected to the eminent position. The great actor Michele Piccoli delivers an unforgettable performance as the elected Pope who escapes the Vatican and wanders through the streets of Rome in search of answers. Meanwhile, back at the Vatican cappuccino craving Australian cardinals and a hilarious volleyball match overseen by the psychiatrist (played by Moretti himself) add levity to a film that has been called “thought-provoking”, “hilarious”, “sensitive”, and “groundbreaking.” Ultimately as Moretti explains, Habemus Papam is not a film about the Pope or the Catholic Church; it’s a film about humility.

Trailer on YouTube

Italian Film Evening - 18 Ius Soli, 22 March

18 Ius soli, il diritto di essere italiani - This 2010, multi-awarded, first Italian grass-roots documentary, written and directed by Fred Kuwornu, addresses the issue of the right of citizenship for the so-called second-generation immigrants, or for those born or raised in Italy by immigrant parents. The documentary sheds light on a reality unknown to many and which sometimes also reaches the paradoxical. In fact, it is the reality of hundreds of thousands of young people who were born and raised in Italy but who are forced to live with a residence permit and who are not guaranteed those rights that their Italian friends and peers enjoy. Not having citizenship in a state of law like Italy means to be denied many possibilities and to feel different from the people around you and with whom you grew up.

Author and director Fred Kuwornu was born in Bologna in 1971 from a Ghanaian father and a Bolognese mother. In 2008 he worked as a set assistant for Spike Lee in the film Miracle.

The following year Kuwornu produced and directed Inside Buffalo, the first documentary on the history of the Buffalo Soldiers, for which he received the appreciation of Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama (both appear in clips in the documentary), the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and of the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano.


Presented by Bernadette Luciano of Italian Department, University of Auckland. Friday 22 March, 6.30pm, Room 315, Building 206, Arts 1 Humanities In Italian with English subtitles. Free entry.

Dissolving margins between life, writing, and reading in Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend

Public lecture:

Dissolving margins between life, writing, and reading in Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend

Ferrante’s quadrilogy is a story of female friendship that challenges the patriarchal sexual, social, and linguistic order of post-world war II Italy. I read the intertwined lives of the protagonists, Elena and Lila, as a space of resistance, agency, and creativity and propose that Ferrante is appealing to women to recognise the power of women’s words and to utilise them to create this space.

Speaker:

Prof. Adalgisa Giorgio

Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies

University of Bath

26 February 6 pm University of Auckland Arts 1 315

Free Entry

Screening the Real: Alina Marazzi's Maternal Trilogy

Alina Marazzi, Film Director 
Monday 11 February, 6pm
Arts 1 220, 
Auckland University
Free entry

Screening the Real: Alina Marazzi's Maternal Trilogy

Alina Marazzi, is an internationally acclaimed director of documentaries, fiction film and theatrical works. Many of her films address issues of gender, motherhood and memory. This presentation focuses on three films that are commonly referred to as her maternal trilogy:  Un’ora sola ti vorrei (For one more hour with you, 2002) Vogliamo anche le rose (We Want Roses Too, 2007) and  Tutto parla di te (All About You, 2013), her first fiction film starring Charlotte Rampling. Marazzi will use clips from the films  to highlight the importance that cinematic form and experimentation take in her re-invention of the real. She considers the reconstruction of her mother’s life and its relationship to women’s history in For one more hour with you; the search for new models for women arising out of  the movements of  the 1970s in We Want Roses Too, and the way fiction functions as a form of alter-ego in representations of maternity and maternal ambivalence in All About You.