This book constitutes a first look at the little-known phenomenon of the Italian/American short film. What becomes apparent is the conspicuous interest these members of the newer generation of Italian/American filmmakers exhibit vis-a-vis their ethnicity, be such films a fiction, a documentary, or a music video. Equally significant is the lens through which they see their Italian/American heritage. While the older generations concentrated more on the by now well-known thematics of immigration and organized crime, as well as the debunking thereof, these younger artists/performers of short films have added to the general theme of heritage, at various degrees, that of race, gender, and sexuality. Anthony Julian Tamburri is a professor of Italian at Florida Atlantic University, where he is also chair of the Department of Languages and Linguistics. He is the author of seven other books, including A Semiotic of Ethnicity: In (Re)cognition of the Italian/American Writer and To Hyphenate or Not to Hypenate: The Italian/American Writer: Or, An Other American? and is editor or co-editor of twelve collections, including the best-selling anthology From the Margin (1991/2000) and Screening Ethnicity (2002). He is a co-founding editor of Voices in Italian Americana: A Literary and Cultural Review.
About the Author: Anthony Julian Tamburri is Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute of Queens College/CUNY and Professor of Italian & Italian/American Studies. He has written Of "Saltimbanchi" and "Incendiari": Aldo Palazzeschi and Avant-Gardism in Italy (1990); To Hyphenate or not to Hyphenate: the Italian/American Writer: Or, An "Other" American? (1991); Per una lettura retrospettiva. Prose giovanili di Aldo Palazzeschi (1994); A Reconsideration of Aldo Palazzeschi's Poetry (1905-1974): Revisiting the "Saltimbanco" (1998); A Semiotic of Ethnicity: In (Re)cognition of the Italian/American Writer (1998); and A Semiotic of Re-reading: Italo Calvino's "Snow Job" (1999). His essays and articles on Italian literature and art, Italian/American studies, and popular culture have appeared in numerous journals, including L'Asino d'oro, Italica, Canadian Journal of Italian Studies, Differentia, review of italian thought, Prairie Winds, Semiotic Spectrum, Italian Culture, Campi immaginabili, The American Journal of Semiotics, The Italian Journal, Ipotesi 80, L'ANELLO che non tiene, Italiana, Gradiva, and Segni e comprensione. Among his editorial work, with Paolo A. Giordano and Fred L. Gardaphé, he is co-contributing editor of the volume From The Margin: Writings in Italian Americana (1991; revised edition, 2000) and co-founder of Bordighera Press, publisher of the semi-annual, Voices in Italian Americana, a literary and cultural review, the annual, Italiana, and two book series, VIA FOLIOS and CROSSINGS, as well as THE BORDIGHERA POETRY PRIZE. He is, with Ben Lawton, co-founder of the Purdue Conference on Romance Languages, Literatures & Film and co-editor of its Romance Languages Annual. His other edited volumes and special issues include, with Ron Scapp. Differentia, Review of Italian Thought (1994); with P. A. Giordano, he is a contributing co-editor of a special issue of Canadian Journal of Italian Studies (1996) and a book of essays, Beyond the Margin: Readings in Italian Americana (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1998). His forthcoming work includes: La semiotica della ri-lettura: Guido Gozzano, Aldo Palazzeschi, e Italo Calvino; Italian/American Briefs: A Semiotic Reading of Short Films & Videos (Purdue UP); and the co-edited volume with Anna Camaiti Hostert, to appear in both English and Italian, Screening Ethnicity: Cinematographic Representations of Italian Americans in the U.S. L'etnia celluloide: la rappresentazione degli italoamericani nel cinema statunitense [Luca Sossella Editore, 2001]. Paolo Giordano PAOLO GIORDANO: received his Ph.D. in Italian Studies with a minor in Art History from Indian University, and his MA in Italian from Middlebury College. He is currently Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Loyola University Chicago (1998 - present). He has served as Director and Academic Dean of the Loyola University Rome Campus and as Director of the Master Program in Liberal Studies. Giordano has also held teaching appointments at the Scuola Italiana of Middlebury College. His research interests are in Italian-American Studies, the Italian Renaissance, and 20th-century Italian Literature. His essays and articles on Italian literature and art, Italian-American studies, have appeared in Italian and American journals. The most significant publications he has been associated with are From the Margin: Writings in Italian Americana, edited with Anthony Tamburri and Fred Gardaphé and recently re-released as a second and revised edition; Beyond the Margin (Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1998) also with A. Tamburri. He is co-founder of Bordighera Press, publisher of the semi-annual, Voices in Italian Americana (co-editor), the annual, Italiana (co-editor), and two book series, VIA FOLIOS and CROSSINGS, as well as the Bordighera Poetry Prize. He also serves as Associate Editor of Italica, the publication of the American Assocaition of Teachers of Italian. He is currently working on an essay on Gabriello Chiabrera for the Dictionary of Literary Biographies.