Memories of the Landing is a documentary and multimedia public history project, developed by Prof. Teresa Fiore (Montclair State University) in collaboration with Awen Films, on the Allied landing in Sicily in 1943. The project investigates the legacy of the first decisive push by Allied forces into Axis-occupied Europe – a pivotal but often overlooked turning point in the war. Known as “Operation Husky,” the landing was the largest single amphibious assault of the war but has been largely overshadowed in public memory by D-Day. As a result, the topic remains in part an unexplored territory, and its remembrance in Sicily bears a complex imprint, often suspended between narratives of invasion and liberation.
The project comprises a documentary revolving around three interconnected thematic clusters:
Monuments and Memory: Exploring beaches, bunkers, and commemorative markers, this module documents how the Landing is re-evoked – or silenced – in Sicily’s public spaces and communal practices.
Food: How wartime scarcity and exchange shaped Sicilian foodways before, during, and after Allied occupation. From K-rations to haute cuisine, this thematic thread explores the “taste of the landing,” revealing how food functioned as both sustenance and symbol. This section leverages the collection of video-interviews completed by Prof. Fiore as part of a previous project that constitutes the launching pad of the current one: “Food, Migration and the American Myth in Sicily at the Time of the WWII Allied Landing“.
Literature: Starting with the writings of Leonardo Sciascia and extending to broader literary representations, this theme traces how the Landing has been refracted through the written word as a site of both personal memory and collective narration.
The project will be complemented by a suite of multimedia materials: archival documents and images, recorded interviews, essays, bibliographies, and other resources. An interactive web platform will enable immersive, dynamic navigation across this corpus, designed for classrooms, museums, public programs, and broad public engagement.
TEAM
Teresa Fiore (co-director)
Teresa Fiore is a scholar shuttling between Italy and the United States: she intertwines academic research, creative projects, and cultural commitments within a transnational vision. A professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey, she has also taught at Harvard, Yale and NYU. Her studies on migration from/to Italy and the post/colonial experience have received Fulbright, Rockefeller and NEH funding. Author of the book Pre-Occupied Spaces: Remapping Italy’s Transnational Migrations and Colonial Legacies (Fordham 2017/Mondadori, 2021), she has published in multiple languages in magazines, catalogs and edited volumes about Italian migrations and colonialism.
Awen Films (Valerio Ciriaci, co-director; Mila Tenaglia, producer; Isaak Liptzin, cinematographer) – Film Production Company (LANDING)
PROJECT STATUS
- SURVEY OF PRE-EXISTING MATERIAL (collection of video-interviews) – Fall 2024
- FIRST ROUND OF INTERVIEWS WITH SCHOLARS – Fall 2024 and Spring 2025
- ARCHIVAL RESEARCH, INTERVIEWS and PRODUCTION OF A SHORT DOCUMENTARY for SBARCO, an event included in Agrigento Capitale della Cultura – Summer 2025
- SURVEY of LANDSCAPE and PARTNERS (areas of Licata, Agrigento and Siracusa) – Summer/Fall 2025
- FIRST FILMING SESSION (Catania, Siracusa, Licata, Agrigento) – Winter 2026
FOR MORE INFORMATION: fiorete@montclair.edu / info@awenfilms.net
Short link: tinyurl.com/MemoriesLanding