Envisioning the Italian migrant experience down under: the socio-historical and cultural framing of Giorgio Mangiamele's "minor" cinema

Abstract

Giorgio Mangiamele is without doubt one of the most interesting and artistically gifted filmmakers in contemporary Australian cinema, even though often material and financial circumstances have not permitted him to develop his ideas in a technical sense; he is absolutely crucial as representative of the post-war Italian migration experience in Australia. His oeuvre has received considerable critical attention recently but a serious, organic, critical analysis has been hampered by misconceptions about his marginal position with respect to mainstream production and the typecasting of the author as a migrant cinematographer. This dissertation has sought to bridge the prejudicial divide between the diasporic context and the artistic value, talent and intentions of the filmmaker. Underpinning my argument with Deleuze and Guattari's theoretical framework of literatures, I suggest that Mangiamele's cinematic production did have an influence on mainstream cinema and society, in the sense that minor no longer designates specific literatures but the revolutionary conditions for every within the heart of what is called great (or established) literature (Kafka, 18). In order to elucidate Mangiamele's acuity, and cinematographic talent and human observational skills, I provide a socio-historical and cultural framing for his oeuvre which confirms the author's crucial importance for the post-war period, his highly individual style and work imbued with ethical and moral principles as well as compassion and humanistic concerns.