Giovanni, Francesco and Salvatore have passed the age of 80 and are proud to still consider themselves communist or socialist comrades. All three left their impoverished villages in southern Italy during the post-war years and, once settled in Montreal, maintained close links with parties of the Italian left, while militating in progressive Canadian unions and parties.
In the documentary Trois camarades de Montréal, using images, personal documents and public archives (and excerpts from a documentary by Arthur Lamothe), these three “comrades” tell us about their migration experience, their militancy and the harsh living conditions of Italian workers and their families. At the same time, the film takes a tender look at their experiences as retirees, and their concerns for their children and the next generation.
Thursday July 11th – 6pm – Tickets
Casa d’Italia
505 Rue Jean Talon E. – Montréal
”Trois camarades de Montréal” by Bruno Ramirez and Giovanni Princigalli
Italy – Québec | 2019 | 52 min | Italian – French | Subtitles:French
With Bruno Ramirez and Giovanni Princigalli in attendance
Regards italiens de Montréal is a programme of three feature-length films by Italian-Quebec filmmakers who, in their own way, reflect on the memory and heritage of a community that has been at the very heart of the development of our beloved metropolis. Whether political, poetic or historical, the traces left by these men and women have become anchored in the city’s cultural DNA with a strength and vivacity that command as much respect as they are impossible to ignore today. While Trois camarades de Montréal listens to three octogenarians with unshakeable socialist convictions and a proud militant past, Le jardin de Pupa invites us to meet Nonna Pupa, a woman renowned for transforming an illegal rubbish dump into a botanical garden in the 1980s. Finally, Caffè Italia, Montréal, a multi-faceted time capsule, alternates between archive footage, personal accounts and fictional scenes to paint a rich portrait of an unprecedented emigration process, that of the Italian community to Quebec, from the Second World War until 1985, the year the film was produced.
Co-presented with Cinéma Public and Tënk as part of the Regards italiens de Montréal series.