"Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence" (2025), 90 minutes, Valerio Ciriaci, dir.

Three feature films, two short documentaries, and a handful of fragments are all that remain of the filmography of Elvira Notari, Italy’s first female film director. A leading figure in the golden age of Neapolitan silent cinema, Notari created as many as sixty feature films that, weaving the passions of popular drama together with unflinching depictions of urban life, captivated audiences from Naples to America’s Little Italies. Undermined by Fascist censorship and family strife, Notari withdrew from filmmaking in 1930. Today her work returns to center stage thanks to the efforts of scholars reclaiming her place in history. Valerio Ciriaci’s Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence offers a living, prismatic portrait of a cinematic pioneer whose vision continues to resonate in the present day.
Post-screening discussion led by Anthony Julian Tamburri, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute