Souls of Naples

A portrait of Naples and its inhabitants, in the words of the Neapolitans themselves. Two women gossip about a woman who committed suicide; a man sells tickets for a local tombola; a woman concerns herself about her elderly neighbour. By moving from person to person, the documentary gradually portrays this enigmatic city at the foot of the Vesuvius. James Baldwin once returned a writing assignment about Naples, because he utterly failed to grasp the city. A Neapolitan says: `Naples is a kaleidoscope of thousands of different souls. Their total defines the Soul of Naples.' The leitmotif is Caravaggio's painting Seven Works of Mercy (1607), made for an aristocratic charity that still exists. The documentary mirrors Caravaggio's clair-obscure in its patterns of poverty and wealth. Age-old alleys with subdued light contrast with the glittering chic of a genteel club. Slow aerial shots and poetic texts in voice-over interweave the separate stories.

Neapel

Short documentary about Naples, Italy.

Posso entrare? An ode to Naples

A tour through the alleys of Naples between works of art, music and theater.

Passione

John Turturro tells, shooting alleys and testimonies of real neapolitan people, the history and musical culture of Napoli, attending every event and tale with a song.

Roberto Saviano: Writing Under Police Protection

An upbeat and humorous account of the hard life under police protection led by Italian writer Roberto Saviano since the publication in 2006 of Gomorrah, his controversial book about the Camorra, the ruthless organization that has dominated the criminal underground in Naples for centuries.

Black Gomorra

A look at the Nigerian mafia in the costal town of Castel Volturno in Italy.

When Naples Sings

Most likely made for the large Neapolitan immigrant population in the States, Roberto Leone Roberti’s love poem to Naples more than captures the heartache of the countless émigrés who were forced by economic circumstances to leave their homeland.

The Secret

A group of Neapolitan children roam the city in search of Christmas trees. They pile up their mysterious collection in an abandoned courtyard in the Quartieri Spagnoli.

Un anno all'improvviso

Flegrea - Un Futuro per Bagnoli

Arrangiarsi: Pizza... and the Art of Living

When the director's life falls apart, he moves into a 1985 VW van, gets back to his Neapolitan roots, and discovers arrangiarsi, making something from nothing.

Up to Down

Naples. Home of the unbowed, of madmen and paupers. A city that refuses to lick anyone's boots, let alone stoop to pretense. This documentary bad trip takes us on a tour of the city's dismal suburbs and into the homes of the marginalized and rejected: a man, a girl, and a masked boxer - three protagonists yearning for something else, although they're not quite sure what. (Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2019)

Pater familias

Una notte

Domenica

Police inspector Sciarra, struggling with an identity crisis, and Domenica, an orphan who would like to know about her mother, spend one day together along the streets of Naples. It's Sciarra's last day of work and he has to take Domenica to the morgue, to identify a man who might have raped her. To Domenica, Sciarra is a father she never had, to him she is the daughter he couldn't have.

The Postman

Simple Italian postman learns to love poetry while delivering mail to a famous poet; he uses this to woo local beauty Beatrice.