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.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Palermo faces the sea and has a very long history of immigration. The narrator interviews a young woman whose great grandfather came to Sicily from Sudan. She is involved in educating immigrants from Africa and Asia. Pitrè was also highly involved in education.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
A Palermo doctor is interviewed about his practice and the African and Southeast Asian immigrant patients that he treats.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
A Palermo doctor discusses the Integration of immigrants in Sicily and highlights the successes in healthcare. Medical assistance is provided for all immigrants, whether lawful or not.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The documentary comes to a close with an interview regarding a prison cell used during the Inquisition. The cell bears the graffiti of its inmates. Pitrè had laboriously uncovered the graffiti, but it was only rediscovered in the 1970s by the writer Leonardo Sciascia and the interviewee in this segment, Giuseppe Quatriglio, who used Pitrè's writing to find it.
Difficulty: Advanced
Italy
L'Eredità [Inheritance] is an immensely popular daily quiz show on the RAI [pronounced rye], the Italian public TV and radio network. This episode benefits the Telethon Foundation, which provides funds for research into genetic diseases, and is based on Jerry Lewis's Telethon. To understand the play on words they use at a certain point, see the various meanings of macchina here. Learn more about this Italian game show here.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Francescopaolo, the contestant, is presented with a long list of Italian winners of either a Nobel Prize or an Academy Award Oscar, and has to choose which prize they were awarded.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Sara, an attractive girl from the province of Perugia, is up next. In the pairing game, she has to determine whether a traditional dish is cooked or raw.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Famous battles, movie roles, and 60s pop songs are some of the subject that the contestants get quizzed about.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
There's one contestant left, but the questions keep on coming.
Are you sure you want to delete this comment? You will not be able to recover it.