Starting in 2018, Carmen De Lorenzo has organized an annual Italian Film Festival USA at MSU. The festival screens Italian movies with English captions, allowing local community members and MSU students alike to share their love for Italian culture.

De Lorenzo works with the MSU Italian Club students to put on the event. The students take charge of advertising the film festival, working the doors, selling snacks, decorating, collecting donations, and so on. Outside of MSU, De Lorenzo and her students work with the local Italian community, such as the Italian Community Club in Lansing. De Lorenzo’s students’ efforts have been supported by the Italian Consulate in Detroit and the East Lansing Film Festival.

“Students who participated learned more about how to organize an event and the steps to reach out to the local community,” says De Lorenzo. “They also learned more about contemporary language and culture in Italy.”

De Lorenzo also chairs the Italian Film Festival USA in Lansing. Through her connections there and social media, De Lorenzo’s students are able to connect with the community to advertise the event. As a result, the community gets the chance to view four Italian films free of charge and to interact with one of the movies’ directors each spring during the festival.

De Lorenzo hopes that she and her students will continue to work with other local events involving Italian culture in Michigan.