Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Adriano has invited us to the baptism of his son Philip. It allows us to get a glimpse of one of the most beautiful places to visit in Palermo, the Palatine Chapel. The priest tells the congregation about the consecration of this famous basilica in 1040.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Interview with Walter Caporale, national president of Animalisti Italiani [Italian Association for the Rights of Animals], whose mission is safeguarding the life of domestic animals and the prevention of cruelty towards them.
Difficulty: Advanced
Italy
We continue the discussion on animal rights, asking the question why dogs and cats, among other animals, have to suffer injustices from humans, solely because they're too weak to defend themselves. The atrocity of religious ritual exemptions to animal dazing before slaughter are also discussed.
Difficulty: Advanced
Italy
In this video the focus continues to be on the religious slaughter of animals without stunning them first and the absurdity of the Italian law that allows it. The underlying message is that animals, as living beings, have the right to their own dignity.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Giuseppe Pitrè was an ethnologist who collected documents pertaining to Sicily and its culture and traditions. His work is the basis for this documentary, which unites live footage, drawings, and archival documents.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
We learn about Pitrè's life, and his relationship to the sea.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
In this segment, we see some swordfish harpoon fishing, and hear an old Sicilian legend about a boy named Nicola who could stay underwater for a very long time.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Pitrè's life was marked by a sort of travelling storyteller tradition in his family. In those days, a cuntastorie (storyteller) would go around to all the piazzas and tell stories, and people would pay to hear them.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
This segment focuses on an actor who retells and acts out stories from Sicily's past, speaking in Sicilian dialect. He uses the Pitrè Museum as a source for material. The museum houses a manuscript with over 4,000 Sicilian proverbs, just one of the many volumes of Sicilian ethnographic material.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Pitrè's mission was to conserve and safeguard the traditions of his people, the Sicilians, and to keep the roots alive. Looking at religious traditions is one important way to do this.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Saint Rosalia (1130–1166), recognized by her crown of roses, is Palermo's patron saint. The video shows the July 14 parade in honor of the saint, and a young man who credits his cure from a grave illness to Saint Rosalia.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
The segment concentrates on the richness of the Sicilian dialect, a dialect which is less and less spoken. The narrator interviews two poets who recite their works in Sicilian, providing insights into the language.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Giuseppe Pitrè received his degree in medicine in 1865. His patients, among Palermo's poorest, provided him with a wealth of ethnographic material.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
A woman performs a traditional Sicilian ritual involving the sticking of pins into an onion, accompanied by prayers, in order to bring back the boyfriend of her suppliant.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Giuseppe Pitrè loved attending performances of chivalric folk plays in Palermo. This segment follows a marionette player at Palermo's Opera dei Pupi, the same theater where Pitrè went to see folk epics.
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