Film Overview

“Our Italian Neighborhood” is a story of life in an Italian neighborhood in America. Its location could be anywhere. You will be charmed by the colorful recollections and stories of many of these former neighborhood residents. You won’t be subjected to a history lesson, but will be treated to the most intimate, warm, and personal accounts of experiences that helped make the assimilation of Italians into American culture very successful while still retaining the traditions and values from the “old country”. Allowed to listen in on these conversations you will almost smell the food and hear the voices of people on their porches shouting neighborly “hellos” as they walk down the street on their way home. It didn’t seem to matter where they settled, the Italian immigration experience was very much the same in each location throughout our country.

They came for a better life than was available in Italy, they came with the least of belongings, and most did not know how to speak English, but they had a special spirit that carried them to a level of personal success that is envied by many Americans even today. Yet, after enduring economic hardship and discrimination they retained qualities that people in any community desire: the closeness of family, good work ethic, cooking Italian dishes with all the spices, making wine and bread, and the genuine happy and helpful spirit toward anyone who is their neighbor… even if they’re not Italian.

Many of these Italian-Americans have nearly the same closeness as they did when the neighborhood was in its hey-day. Why? How did it happen? Will it continue? What is the “social glue” that caused all of this to happen? Does the neighborhood exist today?

You will watch, listen, and learn the answers to these and many more questions as some of the oldest Italian-American residents of that neighborhood recount their most intimate memories. The same questions were asked of each person, and none of the twenty interviewees knew how any of the others answered the questions since all interviews were conducted at different times in different places. It is interesting to hear the similarities in their responses particularly when the question had to do with discrimination.

If you lived in an Italian neighborhood similar to this one you will come away with a feeling of complete nostalgia… as though you have been transported back in time. Non-Italians will come away with an appreciation of the Italian community wisdom and a wish that they, too, would have lived in such a neighborhood.

Ciao!