“In Conversation with Nancy Savoca” with Prof. Grazia Menechella (Department of French and Italian)

This event has passed.

126 Memorial Library (728 State Street)
@ 4:00 pm CDT - 5:00 pm CDT
Memorial Library

The Department of French and Italian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison presents Award-Winning Film Director and Writer Nancy Savoca.

Nancy Savoca will offer a public lecture in English on her work as screenwriter, fiction writer and filmmaker especially with regard to questions relating to the Italian diaspora, Italian American ethnicity and identity. During her visit, Savoca will also present her newly-restored film Household Saints to campus and local audiences at the UW Cinematheque (co-sponsor of this initiative), meet with undergraduate students (including FIG LT 200, Food Cultures of Italy students who are required to read her work in the course), graduate students, and faculty in the Department of French and Italian and other campus departments and programs.

The UW Cinematheque is screening Nancy Savoca’s films (UW Cinematheque, 4070 Vilas Hall):

  • True Love (1989, 35mm, 104 min.). Friday, September 6, 7:00 pm
  • Dogfight (1991, DCP, 92 min.). Friday, September 20, 7:00 pm
  • In person with Nancy Savoca. Household Saints (1993, DCP, 124min.). Friday, September 27, 7:00 pm.
  • In person with Nancy Savoca. L’Amore: La voce umana (The Human Voice, 1948, Directed by R. Rossellini, DCP, 35 min.). Saturday, September 28, 2:00 pm. Selected for screening by Savoca, who will introduce the film in person and discuss how it influenced her work.

Acclaimed American independent film director, producer, and writer Nancy Savoca was born in the Bronx, New York City, to Italian (Sicilian) and Argentine immigrant parents. She attended film school at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has directed Renata (1982), Bad Timing (1982), True Love (1989), Dogfight (1991), Household Saints (1993), The 24 Hour Woman (1999), Reno: Rebel without a Pause (2002), Dirt (2003), Union Square (2012). She has directed for television Dark Eyes (1995), Murder One (1995-96), If These Walls Could Talk (1996), Third Watch (2000), and The Mind of a Married Man (2001). Her film True Love won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1989, was the San Sebastian International Film Festival Winner the same year, and she was also nominated for Best Director at the Independent Spirit Awards.  Dogfight premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in 1991. Households Saints, her third feature film (co-written with Richard Guay), received Independent Spirit Award nominations and Lili Taylor won for Best Supporting Actress. Savoca’s films True Love and Household Saints are listed in The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, and True Love was named one of the “50 Greatest Independent Films of All Time” by Entertainment WeeklyDirt (2003), a bilingual dramedy about class and immigration, won Best Director at LA’s Latino Film Festival and a Writer’s Guild nomination. Household Saints will be shown at the UW-Madison in a new restoration that was showcased at the 2023 New York Film Festival to great acclaim.

Sponsored by the Department of French and Italian, and co-sponsored by the Department of Communication Arts, the English Department, the UW Cinematheque, the Center for Visual Cultures, with generous support from the Anonymous Fund.

Free and open to all.

For more information regarding “In Conversation with Nancy Savoca” contact Prof. Menechella (gmeneche@wisc.edu) or visit https://frit.wisc.edu/event/filmmaker-nancy-savoca/.

For more information about the film screenings, visit https://cinema.wisc.edu/.