By Jonathan Moniz, Staff Writer

What started just a year and a half ago, and continuing on their third semester, Professor Rose Facchini and Professor Matthew Sneider started an Italian film series dedicated to promoting the language, and the culture of Italy.

It also provided a way to better learn the language.

The film series is hosted on the first Wednesday of every month, and features one film for each meeting the professors have decided upon to show.

It sees a fair amount of attendance, and the professors open up the meetings with “a preamble to discuss the meanings of the film and some questions [attendees] could think about,” said Professor Facchini.

It then focuses on the film, its showing, and offers a question and answer session for students to discuss the movie, voice their opinions, and have any questions or confusion clarified by the professors.

The idea for the film series was started as a way to supplement and enrich the Italian language studies and learning course, according to Facchini.

She emphasized the importance of immersion and also learning the culture of the language they speak, as a way for one to become better learners.

She also had heard of other professors in the foreign languages department doing the same, and figured it would be beneficial to help her students and provide a better program for them.

With Sneider, Facchini created the idea as a supplement for her culture and language courses and to provide students with a tangible aspect that reflected what they were learning.

The film series takes place in Italian history, specifically focusing on the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

The reason is because “Italian movies from the nineties onward become a lot like Hollywood and start to resemble American film.”

Facchini chose those because they seemed objectively more “Italian” and authentic as to what she was teaching the students.

Also because they explored certain themes and decisions within the film that Facchini showed.

Many of the themes focused on topics that ranged from moral to heavy, featuring corruption, crime, and immigration.

These issues are able to be applied and understood today.

The professors mentioned as one of the guiding goals in what they decided to, they chose this period because it best reflected those methods.

Some of the more common film genres that they chose to show were comedy and drama.

For Facchini, the most prized aspect of her being able to do this film series and being able to present was for the students.

She wanted to be able to connect to the themes and dramatical storylines within the movies.

Professor Sneider can be contacted at msneider@umassd.edu and Rose Facchini can be contacted with rose.facchini@umassd.edu.