Paolo Chirumbolo
Louisiana State University (USA)
Oil Documentaries: A Few Notes on
Pietre, miracoli e petrolio (Pannone, 2004) and Nero d’Italia (Castellano, 2013)
The history of oil extraction in Basilicata starts in the late 1930s and reaches its peak at the end of the twentieth century. It is in particular in the national park of Val D’Agri, site of the largest oilfield in Italy and one of the largest in Europe, that Italian and International oil companies such as ENI, Total, and Shell have focused their attention. Unfortunately, what had the potential of fostering the industrial development of Basilicata – one of the poorest regions in Italy – and the whole South, has originated political corruption, health risks, and environmental negligence. An area traditionally devoted to agriculture, animal husbandry, and tourism has been devastated by the recklessness of the oil industry with the complacency of the Italian state. In this paper I will discuss how documentaries such as Pietre, miracoli e petrolio (G. Pannone, 2004) and Nero d’Italia (V. Castellano, 2013) have represented the impact that the oil industry has had on the Val D’Agri communities (Viggiano, Montemurro, Spinoso e Tramutola).
Paolo Chirumbolo is Associate Professor of Italian and Screen Arts at the Department of Foreign Languages, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, where he is also the Section Head of the Italian Program. He has published extensively on contemporary Italian literature and cinema, and he collaborates with journal such as Rivista di Studi Italiani, Quaderni di Italianistica, Annali di Italianistica, Forum Italicum, and Incontri. He is the author of Tra coscienza e autocoscienza. Saggi sulla narrativa degli anni sessanta. Volponi – Calvino – Sanguineti(Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2009) and Letteratura e lavoro (Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2013). He is the co-editor of Neoavanguardia: Italian Experimental Literature and Arts in the 1960s (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2010), Edoardo Sanguineti: Literature, Ideology and the Avant-Garde (London, Legenda Italian Perspectives, 2013) e La rappresentazione del paesaggio nella letteratura e nel cinema dell’Italia contemporanea (New York, Edwin Mellen Press, 2013).