Draft:Giovanni Princigalli


Giovanni (also known as Gianni) Princigalli is an Italian-Canadien filmmaker, historian and activist. He was born in Bari on August 24, 1968 and moved to Montreal in January 2003.

His aunt Anna Maria Princigalli.[1] was one of the few women to hold the rank of officer in a partisan brigade and a pedagogist[2].

The other aunt Ada Princigalli was a journalist[3]. His father Giacomo was a political leader, as well as an exponent of the pacifist and cooperative movements.

Despite his father's work, his family lived for a long time in public housing and later in a state building for public employees. His father Giacomo, as a leader of the PSI first, and then of the PSIUP, received a salary equivalent to that of a skilled worker. When he was elected to the council of the Puglia region, he donated half of his salary to the party. The economic situation was so precarious that in the early 1970s Giovanni Princigalli's mother suffered a confiscation of furniture due to regressive debts[4].

In Italy he was a member of the FGCI (Italian Youth Communist Federation) and of the La Pantera student movement (for which he was a delegate to the national assembly in Florence). He was a leader of the ARCI (Italian Cultural and Recreative Association) and a student representative elected on a left-wing list to the board of directors of the University of Bari and the degree council of Political Science[5].

Giovanni Princigalli graduated in Political Science with a thesis directed by the sociologist Franco Cassano. The latter will be the supervisor of his first film, the documentary Japigia Gagi[6], filmed while living in a Roma community on the outskirts of Bari.  He later studied documentary cinema with Carlo Alberto Pinelli, anthropological cinema with Annie Comolli, and screenwriting with Giuseppe Piccioni and Umberto Contarello. He also holds a master's degree in film studies from the University of Montreal[7].

His films have been mentioned in various textbooks on social sciences and documentary filmmaking.  They have been screened at festivals such as: RIDM, Cinéma d'Ales, African Diaspora International Film Festival of New York, Festival du film pan africain de Cannes, etc., and included in the programming of various cultural institutions and cinematheques around the world. Among his films that have received a good reception of critical and festivals are the documentaries: Japigia Gagi[8], J'ai fait mon propre courage[9] and Les fleurs à la fenêtre[10]. In 2024, he completed his first feature film, the documentary La chanson d'Aida[11].  It was world premiered at the Bari International Film festival in March 2024, anticipated by his short documentary Porajmos, In memory of Roma and Sinti Holocaust, edited with images, footage and music from the U.S. Holocaust Museum. These two last works were presented[12] in the Ethnocineca - International Documentary Film Festival Vienna on the 60th anniversary of the Roma and Sinti uprising in Auchwitz on May 16, 1944.

In Montreal, he is a frequent collaborator of director Paul Tana[13], of longtime screenwriter Bruno Ramirez[14] and of anthropologist Bob White.

As a history enthusiast, he has collaborated with institutions such as the Montreal History Museum and has published articles on the Roma holocaust[15], socialism[16], his partisan aunt and Italian immigrants in Montreal[17]

In 2020, an article he wrote in the French-Canadian newspaper Le Devoir sparked a debate and controversy around the presence of a fresco depicting Mussolini in Notre Dame de La Defense church à Montreal[18].  

He is currently a member of the Red Unial network, which deals with cinema for children and adolescents in Latin America, based in Havana. Lastly, he is a member of the Quebec Solidaire party and the Canadian Social Democratic Party, NDP.[19]

  1. ^ Tordini, Nico and Lino (2021). Partigiani della Valgrande. Alberti Libraio.
  2. ^ Assemblée générale de la Fédération Internationale des communautés des enfants, procès verbal, 1949, UNESCO
  3. ^ Bush, George H. W. (2008-01-01). Engel, Jeffrey A. (ed.). The China Diary of George H. W. Bush. Princeton University Press. doi:10.1515/9781400829613. ISBN 978-1-4008-2961-3.
  4. ^ Princigalli, Giovanni (18 April 2024). "IL SOCIALISTA CHE NON TROVO' MAI IL SOCIALISMO". Socialismo Italiano.
  5. ^ Giovanni, Princigalli (17 April 2024). "Il socialista che non trovò mai il socialismo, La bella politica di una generazione che non c'è più". Futura umanità.
  6. ^ Tominich, Ernarosa (27 May 2005). "Japigia Gagi: Roma Stories". Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO).
  7. ^ "Roma stories".
  8. ^ Stewart, Michael (September 2007). "Book Reviews". Visual Anthropology Review. 23 (2): 170–172. doi:10.1525/var.2007.23.2.170. ISSN 1058-7187.
  9. ^ Cancian, Sonia (2012-01-01). "Ho fatto il mio coraggio". Italian American Review. 2 (1): 68–70. doi:10.5406/italamerrevi.2.1.0068. ISSN 0535-9120.
  10. ^ Beth, Suzanne (June 2012). "Amour et mondialisation, ou les affects de la modernité". Visual Ethnography. 1 (1): 74–78.
  11. ^ "Hollywood Party | S2024 | Volker Schlöndorff presidente operativo della 15a edizione del Bif&st e la Canzone di Aida, Il cinem | Rai Radio 3 | RaiPlay Sound".
  12. ^ "balcanicaucaso".
  13. ^ "Ricordati di noi, un film de Paul Tana". Encyclopédie du MEM (in French). 2019-12-11. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  14. ^ Sevunts, Levon (Thursday, June 20, 2019). "Documentary film explores Italy's old Left in Canada". Radio Canada. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Princigalli, Giovanni (2 August 2015). "Porajmos, l'olocausto dei Rom". Il Manifesto.
  16. ^ Princigalli, Giovanni (15 February 2023). "Roses, poings et drapeaux rouges, brève histoire des symboles du socialisme". Caucus socialiste du NPD.
  17. ^ "Giovanni Princigalli". Encyclopédie du MEM (in French). 2017-06-02. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  18. ^ "Mussolini à Montréal". Le Devoir (in French). 2020-07-03. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  19. ^ Princigalli, Giovanni (17 April 2024). "Il socialista che non trovò mai il socialismo". Futura Umanita.

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