The San Diego Italian Film Festival, working with UCSD Italian Studies and Ethnic Studies, and SDSU Italian Studies, will mark February by celebrating Black History Month. And all of this is so that we can get closer to the culture we love, so that we can understand better and know more about this special way of living and relating that is part of us.

Most of us believe we know quite a bit about Italy already, & yet there are many aspects of life in Italy that sometimes can use a new look. First, Italy is a relatively new country still struggling to establish a national identity. Second, it is a relatively small country. Imagine a map of the continental U.S. Then take a look at Arizona. That's the size of Italy – with a population over 60 million. For those of us used to the U.S., we're looking at a country with about twice the population of California in a small space, one of the most densely packed countries in Europe. At the same time that population is clustered in the largest cities, especially Rome and Naples, with over half the total population living in the Po Valley.

To understand Italy today we need to know some important background about population movements in the last 60 years. A huge internal migration occurred in the 50's & 60's of poor peasants from the south looking for work, emptying whole villages and jamming northern industrial cities. And then, beginning in the 80's, Italy experienced a phenomenon it never saw before: a major influx of immigrants, most of whom ended up in the places already most densely occupied, almost all these people looking for work and with a large contingent of the immigrant population arriving from across the Mediterranean from the African continent.

According to the Italian government, there are over 4.5 million foreign residents living in Italy as of January, 2011. Add to this that many northerners stigmatized southern Italians as being "Africans" and the fact that the population growth of native Italians is almost zero, and the result is a fairly combustible situation for natives and immigrants alike. So here are two major periods of population change which brought with them dislocations, discomforts, political arguments and hard realities. Whatever we think of Italian culture, at some point we need to include this immigration reality that affects Italy more than any other European country. The intensity of the issue there is in fact very similar to what we see in the U.S.

A young filmmaker and Italian citizen, Fred Kuwornu, a Ghanian Italian who himself is part of this movement to Italy, has made some movies dedicated to issues important for understanding this new Italy and new Italians, many of whom are not Italian citizens but who know no other culture, no other language. Kuwornu has made two fascinating films which the SDIFF, in collaboration with UCSD Italian and Ethnic Studies and SDSU Italian Studies, wants to bring here, along with Fred himself. One tells the story of the Buffalo Soldiers, the 92nd Division of the U.S. Army, that fought in Tuscany in WW II. The Buffalo Soldiers were a unit originally coming out of the U.S. War of Independence; it fought with valor in many U.S. wars, but they got their names from the Indian Wars. In WW II they became a special unit as the U.S. Army was forced to integrate, and their experiences in Italy were entirely novel for these men, way beyond any policy decision to integrate the Army.

The other documentary tells the story of 18 young people, who because their parents are not Italians must obtain a permesso di soggiorno (government permission to stay on Italian soil), which today is almost impossible to obtain. Even so, these young people know the language and culture of Italy as intimately as they do that of their parents. Kuwornu's documentaries are fascinating glimpses into aspects of Italy today that we could not get any other way except through the work of writers, filmmakers and activists like him.

The three collaborating groups want to give an Italian salute to Black History Month in February by sharing the work of Fred Kuwornu with everyone here. The San Diego Italian Film Festival is very proud to join in the celebration of Italian culture in the U.S., and to help celebrate Black History Month.

Kuwornu's work will be shown at the Museum of Photographic Arts February 21. Please check the SDIFF website for other shows of Kuwornu's work: www.sandiegoitalianfilmfestival.com.

Come, help the SDIFF celebrate Italian Culture in the U.S. and help us bring some Italian perspective to Black History Month.

by Victor Laruccia