Hotel Splendid: Movie and Q&A Session with Director Mauro Bucci

The Africa Initiative is delighted to host Mauro Bucci for a screening of his film, "Hotel Splendid," Tuesday, November 19. A Q&A session will follow the screening. "Hotel Splendid" is an ethnographic film about the struggles of Africans attempting to cross the Mediterranean and their reception in the small city of Cesenatico. There, local community volunteers seek to support the new arrivals through initial settlement, preparation for Italian Immigration interviews, and in a handful of cases the transition to working lives in Italy. Bucci has made two films about African refugees in Italy and their experiences of legal and illegal settlement, and on occasion deportation. Attempts to cross the Mediterranean from Tripoli are dangerous and often fatal begging the question why and in what circumstances would someone choose the treacherous journey. For some the reasons are political persecution for others economic hardship and for many, increasingly, the knock-on effects of climate change.

Mauro Bucci is an Italian award-winning filmmaker and independent researcher. Bucci holds a Masters in Cinema from the University of Bologna and a post-graduate diploma from the School of Visual Ethnography in Rome.