The Spag (1962) Director: Giorgio Mangiamele Giorgio Mangiamele's ...
The Spag (1962) Director: Giorgio Mangiamele
The Spag
Giorgio Mangiamele’s short film The Spag explores the difficulties of adjusting to a new culture through the character of Giovannino, a young Italian boy recently arrived in Australia. Mangiamele paints a picture that portrays the struggle and hardship of life as a migrant in Melbourne in the 1950s. The Spag portrays an eloquently nostalgic view of Melbourne that is hard to recognise as it’s absent of the bustling crowds and multicultural iconic laneways. Instead, Giovannino allows you to follow his footsteps during a period when he wouldn’t dare walk down a laneway alone. Mangiamele’s indictment to the way migrants were mistreated when first arriving in Australia can be seen in the title itself - The Spag – a derogatory term used to describe Italians in the 1950s. One of Melbourne’s Italian Historical Society members, Gerardo Papalia describes ‘The Spag as offering a confronting and honest view of the isolation many migrants had felt when coming to Australia’. Throughout the course of the film, Giovannino’s uncertainty about life in Australia becomes evident by his extreme measures to avoid society. Mangiamele depicts a fragile Giovannino who’s always looking over his shoulder as he is constantly pushed around and taunted with racist slander by Australians. When Giovannino’s father is tragically killed, his mother desperately wants to leave Australia. At first, Giovannino is ready to pack his bags and be on the first ship back to Italy. Though, he starts to have a change of heart as he embarks on new friendships that allow him to see the good in his Australian neighbours.
The audience are also exposed to the crafted works of Mangiamale’s film techniques. With the use of mise-en-scene, Mangiamale carefully crafts The Spag to show Giovannino’s story of disconnection and alienation to resolution and acceptance. Ronin Film’s Managing Director, Andrew Park explains ‘Managiamele was an underestimated Italian-Australian Director whose eye for detail in film was just impeccable’. The Spag offers an insight to the treatment of migrants in Australia in the 1950s. Giovannino’s strength of character is not only a true testament to past migrants but to everybody from all over the world who’s ever felt disconnected when they have stumbled on different soil. ‘The man was a genius who attacked issues that no one else would back then. To commemorate the works of Mangiamale you can now purchase his new 2-DVD set, The Giorgio Mangiamele Collection: Five Provocative Works including The Spag available from Ronin Films’, Park said.
The Spag
Giorgio Mangiamele’s short film The Spag explores the difficulties of adjusting to a new culture through the character of Giovannino, a young Italian boy recently arrived in Australia. Mangiamele paints a picture that portrays the struggle and hardship of life as a migrant in Melbourne in the 1950s. The Spag portrays an eloquently nostalgic view of Melbourne that is hard to recognise as it’s absent of the bustling crowds and multicultural iconic laneways. Instead, Giovannino allows you to follow his footsteps during a period when he wouldn’t dare walk down a laneway alone. Mangiamele’s indictment to the way migrants were mistreated when first arriving in Australia can be seen in the title itself - The Spag – a derogatory term used to describe Italians in the 1950s. One of Melbourne’s Italian Historical Society members, Gerardo Papalia describes ‘The Spag as offering a confronting and honest view of the isolation many migrants had felt when coming to Australia’. Throughout the course of the film, Giovannino’s uncertainty about life in Australia becomes evident by his extreme measures to avoid society. Mangiamele depicts a fragile Giovannino who’s always looking over his shoulder as he is constantly pushed around and taunted with racist slander by Australians. When Giovannino’s father is tragically killed, his mother desperately wants to leave Australia. At first, Giovannino is ready to pack his bags and be on the first ship back to Italy. Though, he starts to have a change of heart as he embarks on new friendships that allow him to see the good in his Australian neighbours.
The audience are also exposed to the crafted works of Mangiamale’s film techniques. With the use of mise-en-scene, Mangiamale carefully crafts The Spag to show Giovannino’s story of disconnection and alienation to resolution and acceptance. Ronin Film’s Managing Director, Andrew Park explains ‘Managiamele was an underestimated Italian-Australian Director whose eye for detail in film was just impeccable’. The Spag offers an insight to the treatment of migrants in Australia in the 1950s. Giovannino’s strength of character is not only a true testament to past migrants but to everybody from all over the world who’s ever felt disconnected when they have stumbled on different soil. ‘The man was a genius who attacked issues that no one else would back then. To commemorate the works of Mangiamale you can now purchase his new 2-DVD set, The Giorgio Mangiamele Collection: Five Provocative Works including The Spag available from Ronin Films’, Park said.
