John Turturro
Tom has one day to find and deport a high value fugitive or he'll be forced to step down as captain of the unit. While searching for the fugitive, Tom finds nearly half a million dollars that belong to the Santana brothers
A struggling Hypnotist in New York City is blackmailed into being the world's first hypnotist hit man after a mysterious woman finds out his degree is fake.
An inventive remembrance of the impact of the Hollywood blacklist on two American classics, rendered as a visually mesmerizing dialogue between Carl Foreman and Elia Kazan.
An alternate American history told through the eyes of a working-class Jewish family in New Jersey, as they watch the political rise of Charles Lindbergh, an aviator-hero and xenophobic populist, who becomes president and turns the nation toward fascism.
From "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" to "The Big Lebowski" and everything in between, this fascinating deep-dive documentary begins its celebration of the greatest cult movies of all-time discussing the birth of the midnight movie.
Follows a young boy who runs away from home in the search of his estranged mother.
Northern Italy, 1327. The Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young apprentice Adso of Melk reach an isolated Benedictine abbey on the Alps to aid in a dispute between the Franciscan Order and the Avignon papacy. Upon arrival at the abbey, the two find themselves involved in a chain of mysterious deaths.
Hours after his release from prison, Jesus Quintana pairs up with fellow misfits Petey and Marie for a freewheeling joyride of petty crime and romance.
Gloria is a free-spirited divorcée who spends her days at a straight-laced office job and her nights on the dance floor, joyfully letting loose at clubs around Los Angeles. After meeting Arnold on a night out, she finds herself thrust into an unexpected new romance, filled with both the joys of budding love and the complications of dating, identity, and family.
Autobots and Decepticons are at war, with humans on the sidelines. Optimus Prime is gone. The key to saving our future lies buried in the secrets of the past, in the hidden history of Transformers on Earth.
In 1972, officer Frank Serpico exposes the corruption which poisons the roots of the NYPD and becomes famous in 1973 when director Sidney Lumet tells his story in the classic film “Serpico,” starring Al Pacino.
After a night of partying with a female stranger, a man wakes up to find her stabbed to death and is charged with her murder.
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
An in-depth documentary on the making of Ridley Scott's "Exodus: Gods and Kings," featuring interviews with the cast and crew. Featured in the Deluxe Edition Blu-ray set.
When his long-lost outlaw father returns, Tommy "White Knife" Stockburn goes on an adventure-filled journey across the Old West with his five brothers.
The third episode of the Cities of Love franchise, Rio, I Love You is an anthology, created by 10 visionary directors from across the globe. The story line of each segment focuses on an encounter of love in a different neighborhood of the city, demonstrating the distinctive qualities and character of that location. The film serves to bridge gaps between cultures, educating and entertaining the audience, while celebrating unique and universal expressions of love.
A boozy lowlife tries to bury the truth about his crazy stepson's suspicious death, but a nosy newspaper columnist and the young man's mother complicate matters.
The defiant leader Moses rises up against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses, setting 400,000 slaves on a monumental journey of escape from Egypt and its terrifying cycle of deadly plagues.
Broadway legend Elaine Stritch remains in the spotlight at eighty-seven years old. Join the uncompromising Tony and Emmy Award-winner both on and off stage in this revealing documentary. With interviews from Tina Fey, Nathan Lane, Hal Prince and others, ELAINE STRITCH: SHOOT ME blends rare archival footage and intimate cinema vérité to reach beyond Stritch’s brassy exterior, revealing a multi-dimensional portrait of a complex woman and an inspiring artist.
Fioravante decides to become a professional Don Juan as a way of making money to help his cash-strapped friend, Murray. With Murray acting as his "manager", the duo quickly finds themselves caught up in the crosscurrents of love and money.
Greek gods living in modern-day New York intervene in the lives of a young couple.
Sam Witwicky takes his first tenuous steps into adulthood while remaining a reluctant human ally of Autobot-leader Optimus Prime. The film centers around the space race between the USSR and the USA, suggesting there was a hidden Transformers role in it all that remains one of the planet's most dangerous secrets.
Pulitzer Prize-winning MAUS cartoonist Art Spiegelman uses his harrowing experiences as a New Yorker on September 11, 2001 as the catalyst for this haunting meditation on the most horrific terrorist attack ever carried out on American soil. Narrated by John Turturro and featuring a unique fusion score by Sintax Error, this powerful multi-media experience brings the critically-acclaimed graphic novel to life like never before.
1-900-TONIGHT (Somewhere Tonight) is an urban fable that tells the story of two lonely New Yorkers trying to find companionship over an adult chat phone line. John Turturro plays Wooly, a simple, curiously odd bike messenger hoping to hear a bit of 'spicy' talk from Patti (Katherine Borowitz), an agoraphobic shut-in. Although each is not what the other hopes they will be, together they prove that wisps of enchantment can be found in even the most overlooked of hearts. And that hope takes on many unexpected shades. Inspired by slain Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh's 06. Written by Michael Di Jiacomo
Set in 1920s Vienna, this is the tale of a little girl, whose godfather gives her a special doll one Christmas Eve.
Armed men hijack a New York City subway train, holding the passengers hostage in return for a ransom, and turning an ordinary day's work for dispatcher Walter Garber into a face-off with the mastermind behind the crime.
In this documentary directed by Spike Lee, he interviews the cast and crew of his 1989 film DO THE RIGHT THING. It also includes footage from a twentieth-anniversary screening of the film.
Sam Witwicky leaves the Autobots behind for a normal life. But when his mind is filled with cryptic symbols, the Decepticons target him and he is dragged back into the Transformers' war.
During the course of an ordinary week in Hollywood, movie producer Ben must navigate his way through shark-infested waters as he struggles to complete his latest projects. A demanding studio boss demands extensive changes to a movie starring Sean Penn, while another chief won't greenlight a project unless star Bruce Willis shaves his beard. Meanwhile, Ben tries to reconcile with his wife and maintain a relationship with his young daughter.
An Israeli counterterrorism soldier with a secretly fabulous ambition to become a Manhattan hairstylist. Zohan's desire runs so deep that he'll do anything -- including faking his own death and going head-to-head with an Arab cab driver -- to make his dreams come true.
Miracle at St. Anna chronicles the story of four American soldiers who are members of the all-black 92nd "Buffalo Soldier" Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy during World War II.
Documentary portrays the saga of how Italian Americans went from being outsiders who were stereotyped as gangsters in American movies to insiders in Hollywood who took control of their own stories. Interviews, film clips and home movies from Italian American filmmakers highlight personal experiences and comment on Hollywood's politics and cultural impact.
Hundreds of years ago in Lapland, a little boy named Nikolas loses his family in an accident. The villagers decide to look after the orphaned boy together. Once a year - at Christmas - Nikolas moves to a new home. To show his gratitude, Nikolas decides to make toys for the children of the families as good-bye presents. Over the years, Nikolas's former adoptive families become many, and soon almost every house has presents on its doorstep on Christmas morning. At thirteen, Nikolas is sent to live and work with Iisakki, a grumpy old carpenter, who forbids Nikolas to continue making presents for Christmas. Gradually, however, Nikolas wins Iisakki's trust. Together they begin to look after the Christmas traditional that Nikolas has begun. When the aged Iisakki has to leave Nikolas and move away, the tradition of Christmas presents is once again at risk. Thankfully, Nikolas comes up with a solution that brings children joy every Christmas, even continuing to today.
Aging screenwriter Felix Bonhoeffer has lived his life in two states of existence: in reality and his own interior world. While working on a murder mystery script, and unaware that his brain is on the verge of implosion, Felix is baffled when his characters start to appear in his life, and vice versa.
Young teenager, Sam Witwicky becomes involved in the ancient struggle between two extraterrestrial factions of transforming robots – the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. Sam holds the clue to unimaginable power and the Decepticons will stop at nothing to retrieve it.
The Bronx Is Burning is a television drama that debuted on ESPN on July 9, 2007, after the 2007 MLB Home Run Derby. It is an eight-episode mini-series adapted from Jonathan Mahler's best-selling book, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning. The book focuses on baseball's triumph over the turmoil and hysteria of 1977 New York City and how the New York Yankees came to embody the hopes and fears of an unforgettable summer with Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson's warfare under George Steinbrenner's leadership. The show stars Daniel Sunjata, Oliver Platt, and John Turturro, while executive producers Mike Tollin, Brian Robbins, Joe Davola, writer and executive producer James Solomon, and director Jeremiah Chechik work on the show. The series is produced by ESPN Original Entertainment in conjunction with Tollin/Robbins Productions. Filming began on September 18, 2006, in Connecticut and New York. The 2007 debut of the series marks the 30th anniversary of the 1977 World Series win for the Yankees, the first under Steinbrenner. After airing on ESPN, episodes could be viewed on ABC on Demand.
Margot and her son Claude decide to visit her sister Pauline after she announces that she is getting married to less-than-impressive Malcolm. In short order, the storm the sisters create leaves behind a mess of thrashed relationships and exposed family secrets.
SACCO AND VANZETTI is an 80-minute-long documentary that tells the story of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrant anarchists who were accused of a murder in 1920, and executed in Boston in 1927 after a notoriously prejudiced trial. It is the first major documentary film about this landmark story.
Edward Wilson, the only witness to his father's suicide and member of the Skull and Bones Society while a student at Yale, is a morally upright young man who values honor and discretion, qualities that help him to be recruited for a career in the newly founded OSS. His dedication to his work does not come without a price though, leading him to sacrifice his ideals and eventually his family.
1 September 2001. Elliot, an American C.I.A. agent holding top secret information on the immediate future of the world, disappears. His sole aim was to meet his daughter Orlando, whom he abandoned ten years before. Irène, a French agent who used to work with him, and David, his adoptive son, will help him and lead the girl to her father. Chased by William Pound, a strangely poetic psycho, they will defy the dangers of international espionage from Paris to Venice and finally get to Elliot on 11 September 2001.
Down-and-dirty musical love story set in the world of the working class. Nick is an ironworker who builds and repairs bridges. He's married to Kitty, a dressmaker, a strong and gentle woman with whom he has three daughters. He is carrying on a torrid affair with a redheaded woman named Tula. Nick is basically a good, hardworking man driven forward by will and blinded by his urges.
An animated documentary that explores the terrain of father/son relationships, as seen through Canemaker's own turbulent relationship with his father.
A documentary looking at the life and films of Francesco Rosi.
Isabel and Clara are growing up in a time of terror. It is 1492, and Spain has decreed that all Jews must either convert to Catholicism, go into exile or face trial and execution. Although forcibly baptized, the sisters are chased through Christendom until they arrive in Venice. It is in this great maritime empire, where opulence rhymes with tolerance, that Isabel organizes secret passages for refugees fleeing the Inquisition while Clara falls in love with a Venetian noble, Paolo Zane. Isabel intends for her family to go to Istanbul, the only place where Jews can live freely, but Clara is reluctant to leave. She challenges Isabel's authority and is prepared to break her family ties and sacrifice her faith for love. Caught in this battle of wills is Clara's daughter, Victoria, who finds she is about to be married into the same faith that murdered her father.
Fired from his job, a former executive turns to impregnating wealthy lesbians for profit.
Business partners Frank and Josh go bankrupt after their dot-com start-up collapses before it goes online. Frank, a bachelor and broke, reluctantly moves back home to live with his parents while Josh, a hippie computer wiz who's married and has a son, is forced to consider the unthinkable - getting a real job.
Mort Rainey, a writer just emerging from a painful divorce with his ex-wife, is stalked at his remote lake house by a psychotic stranger and would-be scribe who claims Rainey swiped his best story idea. But as Rainey endeavors to prove his innocence, he begins to question his own sanity.
After a small misunderstanding aboard an airplane escalates out of control, timid businessman Dave Buznik is ordered by the court to undergo anger management therapy at the hands of specialist Dr. Buddy Rydell. But when Buddy steps up his aggressive treatment by moving in, Dave goes from mild to wild as the unorthodox treatment wreaks havoc with his life.
It's Christmas Eve in Naples. Little Rocco feels increasingly jealous due to the imminent birth of a baby brother. Three little devils sent to earth by Satan promise Rocco that if he will stop baby Jesus from being born, by saying the magic word OPOPOMOZ and thereby entering an elaborate Nativity scene his father built, then his brother will never be born and he will remain an only child.
Firefighter Gordon Brewer is plunged into the complex and dangerous world of international terrorism after he loses his wife and child in a bombing credited to Claudio 'The Wolf' Perrini.
When Longfellow Deeds, a small-town pizzeria owner and poet, inherits $40 billion from his deceased uncle, he quickly begins rolling in a different kind of dough. Moving to the big city, Deeds finds himself besieged by opportunists all gunning for their piece of the pie. Babe, a television tabloid reporter, poses as an innocent small-town girl to do an exposé on Deeds.
The early years of a television sports powerhouse are chronicled as ABC becomes a player in the NFL coverage by putting their full resources into a major showcase. Executive Roone Arledge (John Heard) recruits former Dallas Cowboys quarterback 'Dandy' Don Meredith (Brad Beyer), along with Keith Jackson (Shuler Hensley), and the combative Howard Cosell (John Turturro) as commentators for the broadcasts, which become funny, odd trio events to millions of viewers. Jackson departs the show after the first year to take over the network's focus on college football, and former New York Giants star Frank Gifford (Kevin Anderson) takes his place, ruffling Cosell's feathers. Then things get really crazy!
Rosy-Fingered Dawn is a film on Terrence Malick. It is about the making of BADLANDS, DAYS OF HEAVEN, THE THIN RED LINE and the personal involvement of some of the most representative figures of the American culture itself. This medley of voices has given origin to a journey throughout the whole United States, from California to Colorado, from Virginia to Minnesota, passing by New York and Los Angeles. Every stop represents an ideal set in which all the characters of the films come to life once again giving place to a growing flow of memories. The narrative dimension of Malick's cinema resounds and opens a new horizon on the visible contradictions of the American culture; no easy judgement but a critical consciousness is what emerges from this coral speech, together with a definite need: the necessity of art. A need that Terrence Malick was able to satisfy.
After a car crash sends repressed cartoonist Stu Miley (Fraser) into a coma, he and the mischievous Monkeybone, his hilariously horny alter-ego, wake up in a wacked-out waystation for lost souls. When Monkeybone takes over Stu's body and escapes to wreak havoc on the real world, Stu has to find a way to stop him before his sister pulls the plug on reality forever!
The lives of a lawyer, an actuary, a housecleaner, a professor, and the people around them intersect as they ponder order and happiness in the face of life's cold unpredictability.
Set in the 1960's, a school teacher pretends to be a CIA spy to get his nagging wife off his back. He helps a Russian ballet dancer defect and is then sent to Cuba to locate "Agent X" for the CIA.
Based upon the novel by Vladimir Nabokov, a chess grandmaster travels to Italy in the 1920s to play in a tournament and falls in love.
In the deep south during the 1930s, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them. On their journey they come across many comical characters and incredible situations. Based upon Homer's 'Odyssey'.
A young refugee travels from Russia to America in search of her lost father and falls in love with a gypsy horseman.
A paleontologist is diagnosed with a fatal brain disease and, rather than falling into a depression, explodes into life.
Traces the Beats from Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac's meeting in 1944 at Columbia University to the deaths of Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs in 1997. Three actors provide dramatic interpretations of the work of these three writers, and the film chronicles their friendships, their arrival into American consciousness, their travels, frequent parodies, Kerouac's death, and Ginsberg's politicization. Their movement connects with bebop, John Cage's music, abstract expressionism, and living theater. In recent interviews, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kesey, Ferlinghetti, Mailer, Jerry Garcia, Tom Hayden, Gary Snyder, Ed Sanders, and others measure the Beats' meaning and impact.
A true story of politics and art in the 1930s USA, centered around a leftist musical drama and attempts to stop its production.
Spike Lee's take on the "Son of Sam" murders in New York City during the summer of 1977 centering on the residents of an Italian-American South Bronx neighborhood who live in fear and distrust of one another.
Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, a Los Angeles slacker who only wants to bowl and drink White Russians, is mistaken for another Jeffrey Lebowski, a wheelchair-bound millionaire, and finds himself dragged into a strange series of events involving nihilists, adult film producers, ferrets, errant toes, and large sums of money.
A lovely school teacher finds herself the victim of a scam artist - a garage owner who delights in ripping off his customers. Soon, she has two eager young men, her lizard-loving neighbour and his friend, on her side to help her exact revenge on the sleazy mechanic, who is the leader of a stolen car ring.
A basketball player's father must try to convince him to go to a college so he can get a shorter sentence.
It's the start of the 20th century, and Tuccio, resident playwright of a theatre repertory company offers the owners of the company his new play, "Illuminata". They reject it, saying it's not finished, and intrigue starts that involves influential critic Bevalaqua, theatre star Celimene, young lead actors and other theatre residents
While looking for paradise, a cab driver suddenly falls in love.
The police have three bookies under surveillance, but they escape and set up shop elsewhere. By chance, one of the police finds them; instead of turning them in, he demands money that his brother, now a suicide, had lost to them
Although liberated from Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, Levi did not reach Turin until October 19 of that year. After spending some time in a Soviet camp for former concentration camp inmates, he embarked on an arduous journey home in the company of Italian former prisoners of war from the Italian Army in Russia. His long railway journey home to Turin took him on a circuitous route from Poland, through Russia, Romania, Hungary, Austria and Germany.
Al Fountain, a middle-aged electrical engineer, is on the verge of a mid-life crisis, when he decides to take his time coming home from a business trip, rents a car, and heads out looking for a lake he remembers from his childhood. But his wandering takes him into the life of Kid, a free-spirited young man who helps Al escape from the routine of everyday life and find freedom to enjoy himself.
An aspiring singer, Denise Waverly/Edna Buxton, sacrifices her own singing career to write hit songs that launch the careers of other singers. The film follows her life from her first break, through the pain of rejection from the recording industry and a bad marriage, to her final triumph in realizing her dream to record her own hit album.
Steven Lidz, unhappy with his home life since his mother became sick, moves in with his two eccentric uncles. As Steven grows closer to his uncles, he learns how to cope with his emotions and to value his own uniqueness.
Strike is a young city drug pusher under the tutelage of drug lord Rodney Little. When a night manager at a fast-food restaurant is found with four bullets in his body, Strike’s older brother turns himself in as the killer. Det. Rocco Klein doesn’t buy the story, however, setting out to find the truth, and it seems that all the fingers point toward Strike & Rodney.
Michael Almereyda discussing the future of film with various directors at Sundance.
While working on a documentary on his old neighborhood, a young film school graduate shifts the focus of his production onto the disappearance of a local resident and the strange characters who are conducting the search to find him.
One man must learn the meaning of courage across four lifetimes centuries apart.
After a terrible air disaster, survivor Max Klein emerges a changed person. Unable to connect to his former life or to wife Laura, he feels godlike and invulnerable. When psychologist Bill Perlman is unable to help Max, he has Max meet another survivor, Carla Rodrigo, who is racked with grief and guilt since her baby died in the crash which she and Max survived.
Niccolo (Mac) Vitelli is the eldest of three brothers and leads their family after their beloved father dies. Their father was a builder and his sons continue in this family trade. At first, they work for Polowski, who does shoddy work and cheats on his jobs. When the brothers can no longer take being employed by such an angry vitriolic boss who takes no pride in his work, they set up their own company. Together, Vitelli Brothers Construction builds houses with pride and care. However, Mac turns out to be an overbearing workaholic, with obsessive concern about the quality of their work and incredible attention to detail. His intensity and driven ambition precludes a happy family life and eventually drives away his two happy-go-lucky brothers from his nascent construction empire.
Three manic idiots—a lawyer, cab driver and a handyman—team up to run a ballet company to fulfil the will of a millionaire. Stooge-like antics result as the trio try to outwit the rich widow and her scheming big-shot lawyer, who also wants to run the ballet.
A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood.
A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse.
Set in 1929, a political boss and his advisor have a parting of the ways when they both fall for the same woman.
Terry Noonan returns home to New York's Hells Kitchen after a ten year absence. He soon hooks up with childhood pal Jackie who is involved in the Irish mob run by his brother Frankie. Terry also rekindles an old flame with Jackie's sister Kathleen. Soon, however, Terry is torn between his loyalty to his friends and his loyalties to others.
In this modern day version of Shakespeare's Macbeth, a hitman heeds a spiritualist's prophesies that he will rise to the head of his family. He starts his ascension by clandestinely executing the heads of the family and casting the blame on others. However, with power comes consequences that are also predicted by the seer.
Opens with Bleek as a child learning to play the trumpet, his friends want him to come out and play but mother insists he finish his lessons. Bleek grows into adulthood and forms his own band - The Bleek Gilliam Quartet. The story of Bleek's and Shadow's friendly rivalry on stage which spills into their professional relationship and threatens to tear apart the quartet.
The Behind-the-Scenes documentary of the dramatic comedy Do the Right Thing.
Salvatore "Sal" Fragione is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.
A psychotic young man returns to his old neighborhood after release from prison. He seeks out the woman he previously tried to rape and the man who protected her, with twisted ideas of love for her and hate for him.
Egocentric bandit Salvatore Guiliano fights the Church, the Mafia, and the landed gentry while leading a populist movement for Sicilian independence.
Joe Gower's job is skating through library shelves, fetching books. A police officer/friend of his is chosen to participate in a charity dance performance. Gower agrees to take his place in the show by posing as a police officer. He falls for a female officer in the show and gets into various scrapes with fellow cops and also crooks. And he dances.
Between two Thanksgivings, Hannah's husband falls in love with her sister Lee, while her hypochondriac ex-husband rekindles his relationship with her sister Holly.
Former pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson decides he wants to return to the game by taking a pupil. He meets talented but green Vincent Lauria and proposes a partnership. As they tour pool halls, Eddie teaches Vincent the tricks of scamming, but he eventually grows frustrated with Vincent's showboat antics, leading to an argument and a falling-out. Eddie takes up playing again and soon crosses paths with Vincent as an opponent.
When a western Pennsylvania auto plant is acquired by a Japanese company, brokering auto worker Hunt Stevenson faces the tricky challenge of mediating the assimilation of two clashing corporate cultures. At one end is the Japanese plant manager and the sycophant who is angling for his position. At the other, a number of disgruntled long-time union members struggle with the new exigencies of Japanese quality control.
Roberta is a bored suburban housewife who is fascinated with a woman, Susan, she only knows about by reading messages to and from her in the personals section of the newspaper. This fascination reaches a peak when an ad with the headline "Desperately Seeking Susan" proposes a rendezvous. Roberta goes too, and in a series of events involving amnesia and mistaken identity, steps into Susan's life.
A fearless Secret Service agent will stop at nothing to bring down the counterfeiter who killed his partner.
Brooklyn teenager Jeffrey Willis, thoroughly unhappy with his modest homestead, embraces the other-world aspects of his summer job at the posh Flamingo Club. He spurns his father in favor of the patronage of smooth-talking Phil Brody and is seduced by the ample bikini charms of club member Carla Samson. But thanks to a couple of late-summer hard lessons, the teen eventually realizes that family should always come first.
The flamethrower-wielding vigilante John Eastland returns to rid New York of a drug lord and his gang.
The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.
Potentially Dangerous is a feature-length documentary on the untold story of Italian immigrants interned and persecuted as America's "Enemy Aliens" During World War II.
An Indian American girl who returns to India is subjected to a brutal gang rape topped up by ‘psychological rape’ by her condescending lover who agrees to accept her in spite of her ‘losing her honour’.
Imagine 125 men carrying a five-ton, five-story, hand-sculptured tower and a 12- piece brass band - on their shoulders - dancing it through their neighborhood in tempo to joyous Italian folk songs! For 300 years in Italy, and the past century in communities throughout the greater New York area, this glorious ritual known as "The Dance of the Giglio" has been celebrated each summer with unbridled passion and devotion. This annual 65-foot-high moving monument to faith, folk-art and family honors a Roman Catholic Saint, San Paolino di Nola and his heroic act of sacrifice in the ancient Italian city of Nola in the year 409 A.D.
The Oedipus Project is an innovative new digital initiative by Theater of War Productions that will present acclaimed actors performing scenes from Sophocles’ Oedipus the King as a catalyst for powerful, healing online conversations about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic upon diverse communities throughout the world. Sophocles’ ancient play, written and performed in 429 BC during the time of a plague that killed one-third of the Athenian population, is a timeless story of arrogant leadership, ignored prophecy, and a pestilence that ravages the city of Thebes. At the time the play was first performed, the audience would have been reeling in the wake of a pestilence and its economic, political, and social aftermath. Seen through this lens Oedipus the King appears to have been a powerful public health tool for helping Athenians communalize the trauma of the plague, through a story that is as relevant now as it was in its own time.
