Introduction

This volume is the ideal continuation of our previous co-edited book, Italian Americans in Film. Establishing and Challenging Italian American Identities (2023). We are still of the opinion that the Italian American experience is a phenomenon that cannot be explored in terms of polar oppositions (Italian vs. American, American vs. Italian, or Italian American vs. Italian) and that it should be approached and studied as a multidimensional field of centrifugal forces, where culture, language, and nationality interact in a very complex way with race, class, gender, and sexuality. This second installment of our Italian American research project addresses more directly identities and facets of Italian Americanness that for too long have been placed on the margins (i.e., women directors, as well as authors that explore same-sex relationships, in a context where heteronormativity has always taken the main stage). Our aim is also to explore in more detail how Italian immigrants were depicted in silent cinema, to see how and why one of the most influential directors of all times such as D.W. Griffith produced several short films centered specifically on them. Even though Griffith had no Italian descent, we can still find him relevant in the representation of Italian Americanness; his external point of view provides us with an opportunity to examine how the American mainstream population looked at the mass arrival of Italian immigrants in the early 1900s.