A remarkable Italian American life preserved on film will take center stage in Genoa on September 3, 2026. The National Museum of Italian Emigration – MEI will inaugurate “Doppio sguardo,” a video installation devoted to Spartaco Scarpellini and his experience between Italy and the United States.
Born in Boston in 1919 to a family of anarchists from Romagna, Scarpellini grew up with an identity divided across the Atlantic. His parents and siblings returned to Bellaria, on Italy’s Adriatic coast, in 1926, while his personal and professional journey remained closely connected to Massachusetts.
After World War II, Scarpellini began creating an extraordinary visual diary with an 8mm camera. Approximately 100 surviving films document family gatherings, travel, work and everyday life on both continents. In Boston, he built a successful career at Joseph’s Restaurant, a celebrated establishment reportedly frequented by members of the Kennedy family, actors and prominent athletes.
His images continuously connect two coastal worlds. Cape Cod’s beaches recall the Riviera Romagnola, while European landscapes evoke his return to the continent through Normandy in 1944. The movies also capture symbols of American prosperity brought back to Italy, including a luxury automobile, alongside the family’s entrepreneurial venture, the American Hotel.
Scarpellini eventually settled permanently in Italy and died in 1998. He had no children, but remained deeply attached to his nieces and nephews.
The restored archive transforms one family’s private memories into a broader account of migration, return and belonging. Created with Fondazione Home Movies and Kiné, the MEI installation gives new life to a rare first-person record of 20th-century Italian American identity.
