Becoming visible : personal and collective histories in Susan Caperna Lloyd and Maria Mazziotti Gillan’s documentary films

Marino, Elisabetta (author)

The story of many first- and second-generation Italian Americans was characterized by profound tensions: on the one hand, they strived to hold on to their cultural roots as a powerful act of resistance to assimilation; on the other hand, they felt compelled to erase difference in order to blend into the very society that often stigmatized them. Writers and artists Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Susan Caperna Lloyd have captured this struggle in their multi-faceted work, forcefully portraying their alienation, the self-erasure that often came with trying to succeed in America, as well as their proud assertion of their ethnic identity. This essay sets out to investigate the ways they both used documentary films—The Baggage (2001) and All That Lies between Us (2007)—as a means to restore visibility, reclaim complexity, and give voice to the Italian American experience.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Italian Americans, documentary films, visibility
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 23-33
• Numbering: [Letn.] 58, [št.] 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-180476
• UDC: 791.229.2:341.215.4-054.72(=131.1)(73)
• ISSN on article: 0567-784X
• DOI: 10.4312/an.58.2.23-33
• COBISS.SI-ID: 267619331
• Publication date in RUL: 10.03.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Acta neophilologica
• Shortened title: Acta neophilol.
• Publisher: Filozofska fakulteta, Filozofska fakulteta, Znanstveni inštitut Filozofske fakultete, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani, = University of Ljubljana Press
• ISSN: 0567-784X
• COBISS.SI-ID: 16130818

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Postati viden : osebne in kolektivne zgodbe v dokumentarnih filmih Susan Caperna Lloyd in Marije Mazziotti Gillan

Abstract

Zgodba mnogih Italijanskih Američanov prve in druge generacije je bila zaznamovana z globokimi napetostmi: na eni strani so si prizadevali ohraniti svoje kulturne korenine kot močan akt upora proti asimilaciji, na drugi strani pa so se počutili prisiljeni izbrisati razli-ke, da bi se vklopili v družbo, ki jih je pogosto stigmatizirala. Pisateljici in umetnici Maria Mazziotti Gillan in Susan Caperna Lloyd sta to borbo ujeli v svojem večplastnem delu, v katerem sta močno upodobili svojo odtujenost, samouničevanje, ki je pogosto spremlja-lo poskuse uspeha v Ameriki, ter ponosno uveljavljanje svoje etnične identitete. Ta esej raziskuje načine, na katere sta obe uporabili dokumentarna filma – The Baggage (2001) in All That Lies between Us (2007) – kot sredstvo za ponovno vzpostavitev vidnosti, ponovno pridobitev kompleksnosti in izražanje italijansko-ameriške izkušnje.

• Keywords: italijanski Američani, dokumentarni filmi, vidnost