Toronto

A number of volumes of recent publication have returned to Fellini’s cinema and assessed it from a variety of novel vantage points, testing its resilience against the latest contributions in critical theory and making a compelling case for the need of its reevaluation. For instance, in his Political Fellini: Journey to the End of Italy (Berghahn 2018), Andrea Minuz argues that, contrary to popular belief, the film auteur was not an aloof dreamer, but an artist who was profoundly immersed in his cultural milieu, pondering the questions of his time and responding to its with an honesty that was uncommon, often disarming, and certainly problematic. If Minuz focuses on secular institutions, Alessandro Carrera turns to religion in his Fellini’s Eternal Rome: Paganism and Christianity in the Films of Federico Fellini (Bloomsbury 2018), exploring the uneasy melange of paganism and Christianity in the works of the director, underscoring how life-affirming Franciscanism and repressive Counter-Reformation dogmatism co-exist and clash throughout Fellini’s catalogue. Ottavio Ciro Zanetti’s Tre passi nel genio: Fellini tra fumetto, circo e varietà (Marsilio 2018) focuses on Fellini’s interest in cinema’s sister visual and performing popular arts, of which the director was a both an early practitioner and a lifelong admirer. Moreover, books devoted Fellini’s films still appear in print with regular cadence, from Roberto Chiesi’s monograph 8 ½ di Federico Fellini (Gremese 2018) to Rosita Copioli and Gérard Morin’s edited collection Il Casanova di Fellini: ieri e oggi 1976-2016 (Gangemi 2018). As this cursory look at the small sample of 2018 publications illustrates, the academic community is still actively engaged with Fellini’s work, continuing to produce a plethora of interventions aimed at refining at updating the already vast bibliography on the Italian master.

This joint bilingual conference will (re)assess Fellini’s career and the legacy of his work, examining the complex network of (mediated) significations produced by his artistic collaborations and his personal relationships. Our ultimate goal is to evaluate the present state of Fellininan studies and perhaps anticipate their future developments on both sides of the Atlantic and across scholarly traditions. This event is articulated in two sessions: the first one, organized by the University of Toronto, will be held virtually on October 9-10, 16-17 2020; the second, hosted by the Università di Roma La Sapienza, will convene on January 20, 2021. Confirmed keynote speakers for the Rome session are Stephen Gundle (University of Warwick) and Stefania Parigi (Università Roma Tre); Frank Burke (Queen’s University, Emeritus), Atom Egoyan (Filmmaker), and Veronica Pravadelli (Università Roma Tre) will deliver the address in Toronto. The resulting proceedings will be published as part of the Goggio Chair series in Italian Studies.

Conference Schedule

The video recordings of all the sessions are available on the Youtube channel of the Department of Italian Studies of the University of Toronto.

October 9, 2020

Asynchronous Presentations

1. Daniela Bini, University of Texas, Austin (Il libro dei sogni: Fellini’s dreams and nightmares)
2. Jessica Leonora Whitehead, University of Toronto & Christina Stewart, Media Commons Archive (A tour of the Mastrangelo Collection/Fellini’s distribution in Canada)
3. Flavia Laviosa, Wellesley College (Genealogy and Polycentrism of Italian Cinema through the Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies)
4. Damiano Pietropaolo, writer and broadcaster (Radio Drama: The Match Box)
5. Guy Maddin, University of Toronto (Short Film: The Rabbit Hunters)
6. Atom Egoyan, Egofilmarts, (Installation: 8 ½ Screens – long version – short version)
7. Ottavio Cirio Zanetti – Il mondo grafico di Fellini (read by Andrew Monti)
8. Marina Vargau, Independent Scholar – La costellazione del Viaggio di G. Mastorna

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Organizing Committee

Marco Malvestio (University of Padua/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Luca Somigli (University of Toronto)

Jessica Whitehead (University of Toronto)

Alberto Zambenedetti (University of Toronto)

Scientific Committee:

Marco Bertozzi (IUAV – Venezia)

Frank Burke (Queen’s University – Emeritus)

Angela Dalle Vacche (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Manuela Gieri (Università della Basilicata)

Stephen Gundle (University of Warwick)

Gaetano Lettieri (Università di Roma La Sapienza)

Emiliano Morreale (Università di Roma La Sapienza)

Federico Pacchioni (Chapman University)

Veronica Pravadelli (Università Roma Tre)

Jaqueline Reich (Fordham University) 

Luca Somigli (University of Toronto) 

Vito Zagarrio (Università Roma Tre)