Film Screening and Discussion of "Il Moro"

About the Event

The Center for Premodern Studies welcomes you to a special screening of the short film Il Moro (Italian with English subtitles). Following the screening, we will have the opportunity to learn from writer and director, Daphne Di Cinto, about this project and why she thinks the story of Alessandro de’ Medici resonates with us today. Dr. Lorenzo Fabbri of the Department of French and Italian will moderate the conversation. A reception will follow the event. This event is free, but registration is required.

This event is cosponsored by the Institute of Advanced Study; the Department of French and Italian; Moving Image, Media & Sound; the Department of History; and the Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender, & Sexuality Studies.

 About the Film 

The illegitimate Alessandro de’ Medici, son of a woman of African descent and secretly of Pope Clement VII, turns out to be the heir to the Medici dynasty, but becoming the first Duke of Florence doesn’t mean that his family is going to accept him. The Moor- Il Moro, is a period drama based on true events in the life of the first black man to become a head of state in modern Western Europe. The film addresses how family approval, the place we call home, and the effects of discrimination all have a place in our story. 

Big questions include:    
Who belongs?    
What does it take to belong to a place, a people, a family?    
Can privilege and oppression coexist in the same person?    
What are people willing to sacrifice to maintain their privilege and how will they react when it’s taken from them?    
Does somebody’s social status automatically defines them?    

The Moor - Il Moro is now an Oscar 2024 Qualified Short Film and has won the following accolades:    
Best Short Film: Italian Black Movie Awards 2022, Reel Sisters Film Festival 2022, Madrid Film Awards 2022, IFF Bergamo 2022, Afrobrix FilmFestival 2022, and Fabrique du Cinema Awards 2021    
Best Director of a Foreign Language Short Film: Madrid International Film Festival 2022    
Best Acting Ensemble: Venezia Shorts 2022  

About Daphne Di Cinto

Daphne Di Cinto is a Black Italian screenwriter, director, actor and producer. She began her film and theatre studies in Rome, where she focused on acting at Scuola di Cinema, while getting her degree in Communication Science from Roma Tre University. She attended the faculty of cinema at Sorbonne University in Paris before moving to New York for her Master in Fine Arts at The Actors Studio Drama School. At the moment, she is based in London. Daphne is the writer/director/producer of the award winning short film Il Moro - The Moor.  

As a screenwriter, she has developed both features and series within various genres, from comedy to sci-fi, although she has a soft spot for history. Daphne is interested in topics such as migration, ethnic identity and the female gaze. She was a finalist of the 2020 Phil Fox Award for Playwriting and of Screencraft Film Fund 2021 and a quarterfinalist of Emerging Screenwriters Genre Screenplay Competition 2021. Daphne received the Cultured Focus Visionary in Film Award during the 79th Venice Film Festival and she was awarded Best Director of a Foreign Language Short at the Madrid International Film Festival. She won the Leader in Creativity Award at the first edition of the Black Carpet Awards in Milan in January 2023.  

Daphne played the Duchess of Hastings in the Netflix series Bridgerton.