Vado verso dove vengo (I’m Going Where I Came From)

Vado verso dove vengo (I’m Going Where I Came From) (2019), 63 minutes
Nicola Ragone, dir.

Vado verso dove vengo offers a complex meditation on emigration, immigration, and belonging. From New York City to Aliano, from London to Castelmezzano, the voices of emigrants and of their descendants narrate tales filled with emotions of leaving and of remaining, of desertions and returns to small towns on Italy’s fringes, where emigration and depopulation have left enduring scars and where economic and geographical health are emergencies desperately requiring attention. Governmental inattention is to blame, and it still runs rampant in Italy. Is it possible, after more than 100 years of emigration, to forge a new balance between local communities and global flows? Can small towns hold the key to innovative projects and sensibilities that will inform the future? In Italian and English with subtitles.

Post-screening discussion with the director, project manager Antonino Imbesi, and art director/writer Luigi Vitelli led by Joseph Sciorra, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, CUNY.