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Frank Capra has long been considered one Hollywood’s most successful, influential and complex film directors and, in the new feature documentary Frank Capra: Mr America, which is premiering at the Venice Film Festival later this week, audiences will get a chance to view previously unseen archives that examine the Sicilian-born director’s rags-to-ri...

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While this year marks the 75th anniversary of what has evolved into a holiday classic — “It’s a Wonderful Life” — a Rome native has co-produced and directed a documentary film that explores whether the fictional location in the movie — Bedford Falls — was in reality Seneca Falls, and that the beloved motion picture was in truth, influenced by a sma...

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In the Italian American community there are many examples of wonderful personalities who have made great contributions to every field of American society, culture, and economy. None excluded. One of the fields in which there are truly hundreds of examples of exceptionalism is entertainment.   That is why the work done by NOIAFT, National Organizati...

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Frank Capra, born on May 18, 1897, was an Italian American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Born in Bisacquino, Italy and raised in Los Angeles from the age of five, his rags-to-riches story has led film historians such as Ian Freer to consider hi...

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"Wizard Of Oz," "Casablanca," "Citizen Kane," "Gone With The Wind," "The Godfather." The exclusive list goes on with timeless classic films that have touched the hearts of generations of movie fans around the globe. And as "It's A Wonderful Life" turns 74 on Jan. 7, I am looking back to an incredible lunch I had about 15 years ago with Frank Capra...

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If there is a story that all Italian Americans and all Italians living in Italy should know, it is the story of Amadeo P. Giannini: he realized the American dream, not only for himself, but for an entire society. There are so many reasons why, today more than ever, the story of his life tells the best part of the Italian DNA, whether you live in It...

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We think of It’s a Wonderful Life as a great American movie, a great Jimmy Stewart movie, a great Frank Capra movie — and, of course, as a great Christmas movie. We don’t think of it as a great Italian-American movie. But we should, especially at Christmastime, when Italian-Americans — of Capra’s generation and beyond — can be heard in every shop a...

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by Cookie Curci   During the dark decade of the 1930s, Frank Capra's films brought light where there was darkness and hope where there was despair to a nation in desperate need of an uplifting message. If only for a few minutes, in a darkened theatre, Capra's films inspired irrepressible optimism in American audiences, and when they left the...

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Thursday, November 12 at 6:30pm. Museo Italo Americano - Fort Mason Center - 2 Marina Blvd., Building C - San Francisco, CA 94123 The celebrated film director Frank Capra, a native of Sicily, was always insecure about how much he belonged in America. During that less enlightened time of the early 1900s when he grew up in Los An...

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by Maria Gloria   Dear Readers,The 126th Tournament of Roses Parade, held on the first day of each New Year in Pasadena, California, had its theme this year "Inspiring Stories". Featured was a "riderless horse" that represented Grand Marshall Louis Zamperini, a World War II hero and former Olympian, who died in July 2014, at the age of 97. Z...

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