Not as famous as the one in New York’s lower Manhattan, which is now mostly Italian-themed storefronts and restaurants amidst a neighborhood that is mostly Chinese, those of us who had a mild awareness of St. Louis’s The Hill because of its famous prodigal son, Yankee great Yogi Berra, emerge from Joseph Puleo’s documentary with a rich appreciation of this fully functioning, multi-dimensional Little Italy that is founded, cultivated, and persevering as an actual Italian American community. The flow of this cinematic experience is as entertaining as it is informed, weaving visuals from both community archives and Puleo’s rolls of family film in a confluence of reportage and moving pictures that would make proud the legendary documentarian Errol Morris, whose body of work is the epitome of said style.
A detail Italian Americans will find fascinating is the ethnic dichotomy within this Italian community itself, with its historically unusual makeup as a home predominantly of both Lombards and Sicilians; two regions in Italy whose cultural relationship to each other doesn’t exactly lend itself to the notion of brotherhood. Stunning, the depiction of two community activists entrenched in grass roots efforts to enrich the neighborhood as individual, local representatives of large institutions: the YMCA and the Roman Catholic Church. Particularly emblematic as his brother’s keeper is hometown priest Salvatore Polizzi, a community organizer trying to save The Hill from the coming onslaught of urban construction and suburban flight, who manages to bring his activist brokering on behalf of the neighborhood all the way to the White Houses of both Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter.
Lean at a brisk seventy minutes, America’s Last Little Italy: The Hill would benefit from more screen time so as to find a specific narrative kernel to then develop and unfold into something akin to revelation or catharsis. But that is not a strike against the virtuosity of what is an entertaining and enriching experience not just for Italian Americans but for those concerned with the challenges, survival and potential value added to the societal fabric of America by its ethnic urban enclaves.
Check out NOIAFT founder, Taylor Taglianetti’s interview with ‘America’s Last Little Italy: The Hill’ director, Joey Puleo, as they discuss his experience making the film.
ABOUT GIÒ CRISAFULLI:
Giò Crisafulli is the Chief Entertainment Critic for NOIAFT and writer/director of “Children of God” which he is producing with Melissa Batista at Zio Ciccio Cinema, in which an actor who’s the son of a priest and nun is on the verge of stardom while having an affair with a painter from Italy. A sensational and intuitive look into the romance of two people, it will show how any relationship can be a fleeting microcosm of one’s life. Giò is also an executive producer on the upcoming documentary, Heirloom, featuring Isabella Rossellini.
Check out Giò’s interviews at Lincoln Center’s Opens Roads New Italian Cinema: