(May 11) – A festival about Italian Cinema in the great scenario of New York. This will be “Open Roads: New Italian Cinema”, the upcoming event organized by The Film Society of Lincoln Center, to be held at the Walter Reade Theater, from June 1 to 8. This year, the 11th edition of this popular showcase will open with the US Premiere of The “Salt of Life”, director Gianni Di Gregorio’s warm and witty follow-up to his 2010 sleeper hit Mid-August Lunch. With “Salt of Life”, writer-director-actor Di Gregorio has created another sparkling comic ode to the ladies in his life. He will appear in person with the film on June 1. Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Risorgimento, the festival will present the premiere of Mario Martone’s “We Believed”, an epic reconstruction and re-imagination of the social and political forces that led to Italian independence. Also part of Open Roads this year is a rare screening of “1860”, Alessandro Blassetti’s 1934 epic of the Risorgimento that follows a group of peasants on their road to joining Garibaldi. According to the Film Society of Lincoln Center Program Director Richard Peña, “With a strong presence at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, this will be another banner year for the new Italian cinema. Many artists we introduced through Open Roads are back with new works that show their growing breadth of style and artistic maturity. We feel a strong commitment to this new generation and are proud that Open Roads has become its most important showcase in America.” (Red)
