Please note: due to limited space, seating is available on a first-come, first-seated basis.

In the 700th year of the death of Dante Alighieri, writer Jonathan Levi will talk with filmmaker Ric Burns and literary scholar Riccardo Bruscagli about their new film on the life and work of Dante, which premieres on RAI in September. Between clips from the film, they will discuss Burns’s mix of reenactment by contemporary actors of Dante’s life and poetic journey with examinations by contemporary scholars from Italy and elsewhere of why, in the dark woods of the twenty-first century, Dante continues to inspire admiration and controversy.

Ric Burns is an award-winning documentary filmmaker best known for his eight-part series on the history of New York. Over the past thirty years, he has explored the complex dynamics of the American experience from The Donner Party and The Pilgrims through his most recent films Oliver Sacks: His Own Life and Driving While Black. Riccardo Bruscagli is a professor emeritus of Italian literature at the University of Florence whose scholarly work has focused on the Renaissance and more recently Dante. Writer Jonathan Levi, most recently of the novel Septimania, produced the theatrical adaptation of Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky’s translation of The Inferno of Dante that toured the United States in 1997.

The conversation will be held in English.

This event, to be presented in-person at the Academy as well as on Zoom, is free and open to the public. Please register in advance to watch on Zoom. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation is the 2021–22 season sponsor of Conversations/Conversazioni: From the American Academy in Rome.

Notice

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• Access to the Academy requires the presentation of a valid photo ID and a Green Pass
• Masks are required when indoors, and temperature will be checked before entry
• Visitor contact information may be shared for contact tracing

Please contact events [at] aarome.org (events[at]aarome[dot]org) with any questions.

Backpacks and luggage with dimensions larger than 40 x 35 x 15 cm (16 x 14 x 6 in.) are not permitted on the property. There are no locker facilities available.