L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 28 L'Italo-Americano F or nearly two decades, Daniele De Michele has celebrated the spirit of Italian grand- mothers, calling atten- tion to their collective knowl- edge about food, cooking and local culinary traditions. Originally from Puglia and now living in Rome, De Michele is an author, D .J . and, mos t recently, a documentary film producer. He has worked in tele- vision and radio, written for a variety of Italian food maga- zines, and contributes regularly to La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera. He curated a web-TV series called Nonne d'Italia in Cucina, a journey through Italy's 20 regions interviewing grand- mothers in their kitchens. He's even given a TEDx talk about the death and rebirth of Italian cuisine. When performing on stage, De Michele goes by the name of Donpasta. It's a nickname he earned when he was in Paris working as a D.J. in a club in Montmartre. After the show, he would cook pasta for the staff, most of whom were Senegalese. " T h e y c a l l e d m e D o n p a s t a because they said I was the Don Corleone of pasta," he told the New York Times in a 2014 inter- view. In 2000, De Michele came up with the idea of putting together a touring show that combines cooking with music. In front of a live audience, he prepares a dish from start to finish, rolling out the pasta dough, liberally splash- ing olive oil into a heated pan, adding fresh basil and tomatoes. As he cooks, he talks about the recipe, the process, the ingredi- ents and the importance of pre- serving local food traditions. The audience gets to sample the food at the end. An integral part of the cook- ing demonstration is the music he's personally selected to com- plement the dish of the day. De Michele has performed as D.J. Donpasta at venues around the world, including the Highline Ballroom in New York and the Parc de la Villette in Paris. This experience spurred him on to his next big project: a cookbook, borrowing an idea from the great-granddaddy of all Italian cookbooks, The Art of E a t i n g W e l l b y P e l l e g r i n o Artusi. Artusi's book, first print- ed in 1894, features hundreds of traditional recipes and is a staple in many Italian kitchens today. De Michele's version, called Artusi Remix, highlights some 500 family recipes sent to him from cooks all over Italy. These projects laid the foun- dation for his latest foray into food activism: a documentary film called I Villani, which pre- miered at the 2018 Venice Film Festival. The film follows the lives of four individuals as they d i s c u s s a g r i c u l t u r e , f i s h i n g , farming and cheese-making, exploring whether these enter- prises have a viable future in today's global marketplace. W e c a u g h t u p w i t h D e M i c h e l e i n S e a t t l e i n e a r l y November at the first US screen- ing of I Villani. The film was part of Cinema Italian Style, an eight-day festival of contempo- rary Italian films presented each year by Seattle International Film Festival. Tell us about your new film, I Villani. T h i s f i l m i s p o e t i c , e v e n romantic. It follows the live of four characters who share their way of life, their relationship to the land and the sea, and the his- tory of the places where they were born. I spent one week with each person and I have to say it was very difficult. I tried to enter their lives softly and create a sense of trust. The film is a little bit like their lives – it evolves slowly but it is earnest and pas- sionate. How did you select the peo- ple you feature? At first, I had 20 possibilities and then narrowed it down to e i g h t . B u t t h a t w a s s t i l l t o o many. So I chose four—men and women, young and old, from dif- ferent geographic regions. There is a Sicilian farmer, a fisherman f r o m P u g l i a , a w o m a n f r o m Trentino who sells her products a t t h e m a r k e t , a n d a c h e e s e maker from Campania. I fell in love with these people. Each one is very different but they have the same attitude toward food. What is there about food that makes you so passionate? Food touches all of us; it's universal. If you don't eat well, you don't live well. I think Ital- ian food is probably one of the more interesting foods in the world. But food is more than just something you eat—it's cultural, it's memories, it's grandmothers making pasta in the kitchen. You can't talk about food if you lose the tradition behind it. What impact do you want your film to make? First, I want people to know that food is an act of love. It is not a technical art, it's a social art. Second, we live in a time when we are at risk of losing our cultural identities. Food is part of our heritage and must be pre- served. Is that sentiment what dri- ves your performances as Don- pasta? In my traveling show, I want to demonstrate how important it is to value culture and save tradi- tions. The modern world is won- derful but it's also dangerous. It t a k e s t i m e t o m a k e p a s t a b y hand, for example, and many people simply say, "I'll just buy some." But it's not the same. I want to show people that it's e a s y t o e n j o y c o o k i n g w i t h music. All you need is a recipe from grandma. It doesn't need to be fancy. W e r e y o u t r a i n e d a s a chef? N o , I ' m a n e c o n o m i s t b y training. I've been a D.J. since I was teenager. And like most Ital- ians, I learned to cook by watch- ing my grandmother and mother in the kitchen. What is your next project? I want to do a similar film but focus on craftspeople. I plan to s pend a year touring Italy, researching crafts and the arti- sans who are really struggling right now , and create a film about their passion. RITA CIPALLA In "I Villani," director Daniele De Michele (center) follows the lives of four individuals as they discuss agriculture, fishing, farming and their slowly disappearing way of life. (Malia Film/RAI Cinema) Film maker Daniele De Michele celebrates food as culture Cinema Italian Style presents a week of the very best Italian contemporary film at Seattle's Uptown Cinema. (SIFF) SEATTLE ITALIAN COMMUNITY

• Cover