In commemoration of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Consulate General of Italy in San Francisco and the Italian Cultural Institute invite you to the screening of the documentary I Only Wanted to Live (Volevo solo vivere).
Nine Italian citizens survive deportation and internment in the Auschwitz death camps. Nine stories through which we follow the most significant events of this harrowing experience: the enactment of the racial laws in Italy, the futile escape attempts, the deportation, the separation from other family members, the miraculous survival in Auschwitz, and liberation with the arrival of the allied soldiers. Words that we may not be hearing for the first time, but which narrate the many aspects of these tragic accounts: from the most intimate and personal to the more well-known and cruel. These individuals, through their testimonies, are not afraid to reveal feelings of tenderness and compassion, as well as moments of happiness.
Director Mimmo Calopresti made this film by viewing and selecting from the hundreds of Italian testimonies collected in the archives of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, as well as archival footage and photographs taken from the personal photo albums of the survivors.
The film includes interviews with survivor Liliana Segre, recently appointed a Senator for Life by the Italian Government.
Mimmo Calopresti will introduce the film with a recorded video message from the Ghetto of Rome, and producer Laurence Hoffmann will join us via Skype from New York for a Q&A at the end of the movie.
The Consulate General of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco thank Wildside Media and USC Shoah Foundation for their support of this event. Since 1994, USC Shoah Foundation has been dedicated to making audio-visual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides a compelling voice for education and action. Learn more at sfi.usc.edu.
English subtitles.
Free Admission | RSVP