SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Postcolonial Italian Studies: Anti-colonial Foundational Myths, Colonial Amnesia, and Neo-colonial Ambitions

The screening of two documentaries by Dr. Brioni (Aulo’ and La Quarta Via) will be followed by a critical discussion and evaluation of the field of postcolonial studies in relation to Italy and the Horn of Africa.

AULO' (2012)

Who are you? In an attempt to give an answer to this apparently simple question, Ribka Sibhatu, Italian writer and essayist of Eritrean origin, presents the history of her homeland in her current city, Rome.
Aulo’s own personal story intersects powerfully with the stories of the Eritrean diaspora, which not only does it show the fault traces that colonialism has left behind in her country, but also demonstrates how the perception of immigration in Italy has been profoundly influenced by an apparent failure in the process of decolonization in Italian collective memory.

OFFICIAL TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y4rYLlUEf0&feature=player_embedded
DISTRIBUZIONE:http://www.kimerafilm.com/#!distribuzione/vstc6=aulò
FB PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/aulo.movie?ref=hl

LA QUARTA VIA (2012)

Kaha Mohamed Aden, an Italian writer of Somali origin, narrates her memories of Mogadishu, her hometown, and reconstructs its story in Pavia, where she currently lives. The history of the city of Mogadishu, which has been erased by the clanic war, gives rise to many important fundamental questions on the history of Italy itself, given the amnesia of the colonial period and of the Italian Trusteeship Administration of Somalia in Italy.

OFFICIAL TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2xNP9C4cVY
DISTRIBUZIONE:http://www.kimerafilm.com/#!distribuzione/vstc6=la-quarta-via
FB PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/La-quarta-via/475741029110666?ref=hl

Dr. Simone Brioni is Institute of Advanced Study Early Career Fellow at the University of Warwick. His PhD researchThe Somali Within: Questions of Identity, Language and Resistance in 'Minor' Italian Literature focuses on writings by Italian authors of Somali origins. Simone's research interests concern Italian migrant writings and post-colonial literature. Among his most recent publications is included the introduction to the collection of short storiesBabel Hotel (ed. by Ramona Parenzan, Roma: Infinito, 2011). He is the curator of the festival of migrant writings ‘OLTREilMARginE’, which is held in Brescia (Italy). Simone has written and directed the documentaries La Quarta Via. Mogadiscio, Italia (Kimerafilm, 2012, Libero Bizzarro Prize - Mediaeducazione 2010) and Aulò. Roma Post-coloniale (Kimerafilm, 2012), which concern the relationship between Italy and its former colonies in the Horn of Africa. Simone has also translated in English the volumes Giovanni Fontana and Lamberto Pignotti (Brescia: Fondazione Berardelli, 2009 and 2011 respectively) and has published the monographic volume Il futuro quotidiano: saggi su James Graham Ballard (Siena: Prospettiva, 2011).