Interviews with the Phoenix: Interviews with Fifteen Italian-Quebecois Artists

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

Interviews with the Phoenix is the English translation of a book whose
original French-language version appeared in 1985. The 15 Italaphone
artists featured represent a broad range of disciplines. They include
poster artist Vittoria Fiorucci; filmmaker Paul Tana; composer and
author/producer Tonino Caticchio; muralist Mario Merola; playwrights
Dominique De Pascale and Mario Micone; novelists Camillo Carli and
Lamberto Tassinari; painters Francesco Iacurto and Guido Molinari; and
poets Mary Melfi, Filippo Salvatore, Marco Fraticelli, Mario Campo, and
Antonio D’Alfonso.

Through the interviews, we learn about such things as the artists’
roots and family relationships, their education and upbringing, their
artistic and creative relationships with other artists, how and why they
create, and their experiences as members of the Italian minority in
Quebec. Themes or topics important to the individual artist are
explored. Carli expresses strong feelings of anti-Americanism, while
Caticchio laments the erosion of Roman Italian as a language. Melfi
talks about the implications of being “probably the only woman writer
of Italian origin in Montreal.” Tana discusses the influence of the
films of Martin Scorsese on his work. De Pasquale reflects on his strong
identification with Quebec’s nationalist movement. Their collective
musings will be of particular interest to artists, educators, and social
commentators.