The Dryden will screen films of Vittorio De Seta:

• Peasants of the Sea (Vittorio De Seta, Italy 1955)
• Islands of Fire (Vittorio De Seta, Italy 1955)
• Lu tempu di li pisci spata (The Swordfish Season, Vittorio De Seta, Italy 1954, 10 min.)
• Isole di fuoco (Islands of Fire, Vittorio De Seta, Italy 1955, 11 min.)
• Surfarara (Sulphur Mines, Vittorio De Seta, Italy 1955, 10 min.)
• Pasqua in Sicilia (Easter in Sicily, Vittorio De Seta, Italy 1955, 11 min.)
• Contadini del mare (Peasants of the Sea, Vittorio De Seta, Italy 1955, 10 min.)
• Parabola d'oro (Golden Parable, Vittorio De Seta, Italy 1955, 10 min.)
• Pescherecci (Fishing, Vittorio De Seta, Italy 1958, 10 min.)

Although championed by Pier Paolo Pasolini in the 1960s as a "poet of reality," Vittorio De Seta, born in 1923 in Palermo, remains a neglected figure not only internationally but also in Italy. This is a rare opportunity to see his complete early shorts on new 35mm prints: stunningly beautiful documents on the labor and ritual of southern Italians in the 1950s. These epic poems, shot in Sardinia and Sicily, both on land and at sea, offer an unprecedented glimpse into the daily lives of shepherds, miners, and fishermen. De Seta sought to document a culture that was already disappearing then—a victim of the fast industrialization of Italy—and that is almost completely lost today.

[source: George Eastman Museum, 2017-Oct-30]