X
Yabla Italian
italian.yabla.com
Add to Homescreen
 Library
Illuminate
Intermediate
29 Videos

Illuminate (luminaries [f]) is a documentary that tells about the lives and accomplishments of 20th century women of note. By means of research and through interviews with well-known Italian personalities, the life stories of Rita Levi-Montalcini (Nobel Prize winner) and Margherita Hack (brilliant Italian scientist) have been reconstructed. These two illustrious women have been the inspiration for so many young women and are an example for new generations.

Videos
Pages: 1 of 1 
─ Videos: 1-29 of 29 Totaling 1 hour 55 minutes

Illuminate - Rita Levi Montalcini - Part 1

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Comedian and actor Caterina Guzzanti is a guest at a middle school in Afragola, in the province of Naples, a school named after Rita Levi Montalcini. Guzzanti meets with the students from the theater class for a lesson on the imagination, which has a lot of importance in her work but was also very important to the great researcher from Turin, Montalcini.

Illuminate - Rita Levi Montalcini - Part 2

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Rita Levi Montalcini talks about when she won the Nobel Prize in 1986. Her niece, Piera, tells the story from her point of view, and Paola Tarassi, a research student of hers, tells about studying with her after she had already won the Nobel.

Illuminate - Rita Levi Montalcini - Part 3

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Rita Levi Montalcini felt that imagination was the "secret sauce" of her research. And this encouraged her to turn to young people, who have plenty of imagination. She didn't hesitate to teach kids of junior high school age, which came as a surprise to some people, since she was a winner of the Nobel prize.

Illuminate - Rita Levi Montalcini - Part 4

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Rita Levi Montalcini dedicated a great part of her life to young people, especially young researchers, and though she had no children of her own, she felt that all kinds of young people were like sons and daughters to her.

Illuminate - Rita Levi Montalcini - Part 5

Difficulty: difficulty - Adv-Intermediate Adv-Intermediate

Italy

Rita Levi Montalcini talks about what, as a little girl, she wanted to be when she grew up. One of her main goals was to help women, especially ones from poor countries, become what they were meant to become.

Illuminate - Rita Levi Montalcini - Part 6

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

As a child, Rita Levi Montalcini was shy and insecure. Her father wanted her to get married and have children, but she had other plans for her life. She also had a twin sister who was an artist.

Illuminate - Rita Levi Montalcini - Part 7

Difficulty: difficulty - Adv-Intermediate Adv-Intermediate

Italy

Rita Levi Montalcini was a strong proponent of education and instruction as the means to gain freedom. She was also an example of it. This segment describes a visit to women in prison, and the obstacles Montalcini had to face, as a woman and as a Jew, during the Nazi-Fascist regime.

Illuminate - Rita Levi Montalcini - Part 8

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Because of the racial laws in Italy during the period of Fascism, many Jews left the country, including Rita Levi Montalcini. In Italy she wasn't allowed to work or publish papers, but somehow, she found a way to keep going.

Illuminate - Rita Levi Montalcini - Part 9

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

The formal, ceremonious aspect of the Nobel Prize awards was not what Rita Levi-Montalcini was used to, but she used that recognition to her advantage. Winning the Nobel Prize wasn't necessarily the high point in her career.

Illuminate - Rita Levi Montalcini - Part 10

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Rita Levi Montalcini doesn't feel like she made any sacrifices in her life, including not having a family. She had a clear vision of what she wanted out of life, and she followed it.

Illuminate - Rita Levi Montalcini - Part 11

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

After winning the Nobel prize, Rita Levi-Montalcini was not as shy as she had been prior to that moment. Because she stood out as a woman in a "man's world," she was able to use her unique position to make her mark, not only in the science world, but in society.

Illuminate - Rita Levi Montalcini - Part 12

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Not only did she win a Nobel prize; in her own country, she was appointed as a Senator for life, a great honor. But she took that job seriously and participated actively and with integrity. Not everyone appreciated that.

Illuminate - Rita Levi Montalcini - Part 13

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

In her final years, Rita Levi-Montalci was very, very frail, but she never lost her combative spirit. Romano Prodi recalls the last time he saw her.

Illuminate - Rita Levi Montalcini - Part 14

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

The documentary concludes with some valuable advice from Rita Levi-Montalcini about how to live one's life. People who knew her offer some adjectives to describe who she was.

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 1

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

A car problem allows us to meet Eda Gjergo, a young astrophysicist, who will in turn lead us to meet Margherita Hack, the subject of this episode about women luminaries. Hack was a famous scientist, communicator, and activist.

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 2

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Eda discovered Margherita Hack on a TV show hosted by Piero Angela. This changed Eda's life. Margherita as a young scientist had a rough time in a profession where men were the important ones and had little regard for women.

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 3

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Margherita Hack made her mark on the University of Trieste, teaching Astronomy there for almost 30 years and linking it with the Observatory. She had to use some drastic means to be recognized, however, being a woman in a man's world. But the balance changed over time, with her help, to involve many more women than before, both as students and researchers.

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 4

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Margherita was much more interested in substance and knowledge than in material things, including physical appearance, and this became her brand, in a certain sense. That didn't keep people from loving and respecting her, although there were some occasional incidents, a few of which are recounted by people who knew her.

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 5

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Perhaps not everyone knows that Margherita Hack as a girl was quite the athlete. Her sport was track and field. She also had a passion for cycling and rode her bike well into her seventies.

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 6

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Although as an athlete, Margherita did make some compromises she felt she had to during the decades of Italian Fascism, she also took a stand against it, risking expulsion from school.

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 7

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

This segment recounts how Aldo De Rosa and Margherita met in a park in Florence as kids and later married. Aldo supported her in her scientific work throughout their marriage, which lasted over seventy years.

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 8

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Aldo and Margherita stuck together. He might get bored at her lectures, but he would always be there. They both shared a love for sports and motocycles.

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 9

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Margherita Hack's talents lay not only in her greatness as a scientist, but also in her remarkable ability to communicate with the general public, and especially young people. She rendered complicated information comprehensible and interesting, using clear and simple examples.

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 10

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Margherita Hack was a scientist and communicator, but she also expressed her opinions about attualità (current events). Part of this segment features a panel discussion she held with author Andrea Camilleri, best known for his novels about Inspector Montalbano that became a popular TV series.

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 11

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Margherita Hack spent some time in politics and was also an entrepreneur at times. But she had a lot of fun, too. On the panel with Camilleri, the author of the Montalbano stories, they all come out (in unison) with the famous introduction Montalbano sono (Montalbano, I am). Putting the verb at the end is typical of Sicily, where the story takes place. Otherwise, it would be Sono Montalbano (I'm Montalbano) or, on the phone, "This is Montalbano."

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 12

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

We discover that Margherita Hack was a devoted fan of the long-running TV series, Un posto al sole [a place in the sun]. She explains why. Francesca goes back to Trieste and meets up with Eda who talks about having lived in the same house with Margherita Hack.

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 13

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

In this segment, Margherita talks about her choice not to have children and also discusses her position regarding God. She can't prove he exists nor can she prove he doesn't.

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 14

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Even though Aldo and Margherita were very different in many ways, they came together in their skepticism. Towards the end of her life, Margherita couldn't move around much, but her brain never stopped going.

Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 15

Difficulty: difficulty - Intermediate Intermediate

Italy

Margherita left a legacy of progress, both scientific and social. Perhaps she is still looking down on us, since an asteroid was named after her: 8558 Hack.

Are you sure you want to delete this comment? You will not be able to recover it.