Founder’s Report
Bronx Premiere of Il Moro - The Moor (dir. Daphne Di Cinto)
A Red-Letter Date For Art House in The Borough
By Walter Krochmal
PHOTOS: Fredy Pineda/PICAFO News
PRESENTED BY Cinema on the Sound & Bronx World Film
Cinema on the Sound, City Island, The Bronx, New York. Wednesday November 3, 2022.
The Bronx premiere of this ground-breaking short at a brand-new venue on City Island — the fishing village just off the shore that you are now recklessly curious about –– drew adventurous souls from the city and points beyond.
Director Daphne Di Cinto and Andrea Melis (Ippolito de’ Medici), in town from Italy for the film’s US debut in Manhattan, traveled all the way from Brooklyn, sat for an interview with Cultured Focus magazine, watched the screening, then held a lively Q & A with an audience that included our supporters, local film makers, and friends.
The memorable, intimate event sets a precedent for convergence, for celebrating and supporting each other locally and across borders. To those who ventured out to show love to a brilliant colleague and the memorable work that she produced, to welcome her in a promising new venue under a positive partnership in a spirit of encouragement augurs well for us all.
The screening of Il Moro - The Moor marks a first between Bronx World Film, the borough’s pioneer art house presenter, and Cinema on the Sound, the first art house venue erected in this borough in fifty years. We know about exclusion and closed doors. Let us keep our bond strong and healthy. Film making starts when communities talk to each other.
The Partnership with Cinema on the Sound
This past August, a terse, unexpected e-mail lands in my inbox from Jerry Landi, a man of many hats including film maker and founder of Cinema on the Sound. We’d met at one of his screening events in Throgs Neck years ago. Now, he tells me that he launched Cinema on the Sound here in The Bronx, that a mutual friend told him I was seeking a screening venue and to call him.
Basically, Jerry Landi writes to invite me to come outside and play.
I call this an “unexpected message” because we don’t hear this often in The Bronx, not from arts or education institutions, not from elected officials, not from each other. This deep-rooted, widespread cultural behavior, a product of factors too numerous to examine here, is the greatest foe of local creators.
I’ve seen too many great ideas suffocated by this malaise, so naturally, the message raises suspicions. On the other hand, City Island is my long-time haunt for two decades running now, and the sweet ride out always takes me back to university days cycling around New England. I decide to hop into the saddle and take the ride over.
Cinema on the Sound stands almost exactly at the halfway mark on City Island Avenue, which must hold the record for highest concentration of seafood restaurants west of the Kyklades. The “Obscurities/Curiosities” shop sign is still on the window, though it closed time ago until owner Peter Valeri entrusted it to Jerry, who spent two months renovating every square inch.
My reaction is what yours will be when you first see City Island. It left me breathless.
Craftsmanship sparkles on the vintage fixtures, on the once-pockmarked pressed tin restored by hand, on the bona fide green room that launches me headlong into the world of live performance. It sweeps me away, as it did several audience members who swooned at the details of a cozy, welcoming space.
The borough is poised for its most radical transformation in a century. We have a responsibility to ensure respect for its historic memory, the diverse strands of its identity, and the pioneering labor of those who precede us. Spaces like Cinema on the Sound create valuable instances for us to gather and learn how to act as a single, coherent bloc to hold our ground against displacement.
Our camera, ever-alert, captures Ms. Di Cinto and her small entourage consisting of Andrea Melis (who plays Ippolito de’Medici) accompanied by partner Eleonora Chighine, arriving “under-the-radar” at Cinema on the Sound.
Scheduling constraints had prevented us from arranging for our distinguished guests to depart their lodgings, in the mid-latitudes of Brooklyn, until 4 pm. This meant that they would plunge headlong into the sheer drop of rush-hour-proper traffic, a chasm of chaos separating the two boroughs. With a 5:30 pm media interview scheduled on our side, skepticism ran deep in our camp as to whether they could make it in time.
This sequence, from a video time-stamped November 2, 2022 at 5:35 pm, shows Ms. Di Cinto and guests as they alight in front of Cinema on the Sound safe… and sound! One can surmise that in fact, they arrived exactly on time, the 5-minute delay in disembarking taken up in niceties between passengers and driver. We cannot do less than hail this landmark achievement by pilot Alexis, whose vaunted eye-hand coordination, navigational acumen and laser focus allowed him to land his charges, unruffled and fresh as daisies, from an epic drive along a picturesque two-borough arc of this great city without incurring in any illegal or unsafe acts in transit
Daphne Di Cinto’s work caught our attention from Festival de Cannes Short Film Corner of past May. The plot line centers around the rise of Alessandro de’ Medici, illegitimate son of Pope Clement VII and an African slave, to the title of Duke of Florence. Her profile as an Afropean actress trained in New York, as well as writer and director, completed the picture. She promised us a screening once she secured her film’s festival debut in New York City, and kept her word.
NOTE: This sequence captures Ms. Di Cinto as she approaches the venue, the corners of her mouth turning up and her eyes twinkling. The night before, Il Moro - The Moor earned Oscar-qualified status at the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival. Our best wishes, Daphne, and thank you for coming to The Bronx with your film, which has earned its every laurel and given us occasion to make common cause at a special evening.
The momentum and buzz from Il Moro - The Moor drew Ms. Taylor Re Lynn, Film Producer and Founder of Cultured Focus Magazine, to its Bronx premiere accompanied by Julie Walker (Associated Press correspondent) and cameraman Chris Hope. Our kudos for braving the long trek from Manhattan and Connecticut, respectively, to report on our big night, and we look forward to their presence at future events. We have a soft spot in ouir heart for adventurous cultural journalists undaunted by distances or time zones and keen to keep their fingers on the pulse of contemporary cinema. They encourage us, and ensure that our work reaches audiences far beyond our local radius, out to the region, the nation and the world to our peers who lay stake in the development of art house film for the wellbeing of peoples.
The Film Maker and Her Entourage
Community From Near and Far
Screening time approaches, and so do our guests, a small crowd that includes friends, friends of friends, Bronx film makers, journalists, patrons and supporters. They meet and mingle outside the venue, chatting animatedly while the film maker holds her interview inside, in the green room. You can feel excitement and novelty in the air.
Q & A with Daphne Di Cinto and Andrea Melis
Il Moro - The Moor packs what seems like an eternity of history lost and gloriously recovered into the short lapsus of 22 minutes and 29 seconds. The Director examines chapters of Italian history that stared out from the books for five centuries, yet remained ignored and buried. Her film brings them to new life with a respectful, rigorous hand.
At the Q & A after the screening, audience members sat at rapt attention listening to Ms. Di Cinto talk about how the film came into existence, the always-fascinating behind-the-scenes stories from location searches on through to the myriad surprises that come with actual production. Ms. Di Cinto shared that this film has started a process by which she intends to produce a series. She was joined by actor Andrea Melis, who shines in the role of the villainous Ippolito de’ Medici.
Up Close with Andrea Melis (Ippolito de’ Medici)
A conversation sparks up and quickly moves to actor “shop talk” with Andrea Melis, the tall, striking actor who plays Ippolito de’ Medici in Il Moro - The Moor.
Andrea’s performance displays the precision, focus, detail and economy of a classically trained stage actor, traits that stand out in high relief as hallmarks of Di Cinto’s film making given that she is also a trained actress. No one can direct actors like another actor, and every performance in this film bears witness to that. Andrea has just graduated from a two-year actor conservatory program in Italy, and lights up while talking about landing a film role at the start of his career that fits him like a finely tailored suit.
The subject of how vastly our profession has changed over the last decade comes up. We agree, with the natural reluctance of artists who perhas wish it weren’t so, on the imperative of managing one’s career and talent, of creating one’s own opportunities. While we may dream that the world around us might supports this craft at its highest level, it is in our hands to endow it with respect. Andrea shared the news that he is preparing to move to the US soon. A warmest welcome to him, and to opportunities to continue our dialogue and relationship.
Our attention turns to the charming Ms. Eleonora Chighine, Andrea’s partner, who shares that she is an opera singer enjoying her first trip to the United States… and under such happy circumstances! The conversation flows into the easy terrain in which Italian and Spanish speakers understand each other like the first cousins that they are. Eleonora reveals that she recently found out that she has roots in Valencia (Spain), and that when the New York City screenings finish, she travels there for the first time to touch on maternal homeland soil, along with Andrea. ¡Buen viaje, Eleonora! Your presence will always be welcome in New York City, too.
Bronx World Film and Il Moro - The Moor
On behalf of Bronx World Film, Incorporated and our community, heartfelt thanks to Ms. Daphne Di Cinto for a radically fresh, inspiring film from opening frame to closing credit, and for her thought leadership at this critical moment in the development of art house film. We look forward to welcoming you and your distinguished entourage back for future engagements, and to a long, fruitful relationship.
Bronx World Film Cycle Catalogue 2011-2021
Browse our catalogue in all its glorious diversity, with entries for every film screened in our first ten years.