West Virginia University - News and Information Services
Award-winning documentary "Prisoners Among Us" comes to WVU campus Monday
“Prisoners Among Us,” the acclaimed documentary that chronicles the Italian-American experience in World War II, is coming to West Virginia University.
Free viewings of the film will be on Monday, March 7, at 7:30 p.m., in G24 Eiesland Hall on WVU’s downtown campus and Tuesday, March 8, at 5:30 p.m. in Room 458, Business and Economics Building. A panel discussion featuring the documentary’s filmmaker Michael Angelo DiLauro will follow the Tuesday viewing.
The film won Best Documentary at the 2004 New York International Independent Film Festival.
WVU’s Italian American Student Organization and Eberly College of Arts and Sciences are sponsoring the film’s appearance here, along with the Committee for the Preservation of Italian American History and Culture.
DiLauro said the film is significant, because at its core, it’s about the American Dream and American ideology – and how that all turned at the war’s start for the Italian immigrants who came here the century before.
WVU organizers agreed.
“Many people do not know of the strong feelings of prejudice toward Italians that affected many people, even locally,” said Gloria Salucci Cunningham, who serves as co-chair of the Committee for the Preservation of Italian American History and Culture. “This film helps illustrate these struggles our families endured daily.”
Along with DiLauro, Tuesday’s panel discussion will feature Russell Bonasso, a Fairmont resident who fought in World War II, WVU Associate Professor of History Kenneth Fones-Wolf and Annastella Vester, a WVU clinical professor of Italian.
Info: Contact Tina Levelle, 304-293-4611. For more background on the film, visit online: www.prisonersamongus.com.
Office: (304) 293-6997