SIAMO UNA FAMIGLIA
ZOOMING IN ON ZEPPOLE: CREATING A CLOSE UP ON AN ITALIAN CREAM PUFF
By Kirsten Keppel, AMHS member
Kirsten Keppel
When I set out last summer to make the film Ringraziamenti: The Saint Joseph’s Day Table Tradition, I never dreamed how present St. Joseph would be to the making of the picture! The “silent saint,” who never utters a word in Scripture, filled my film and life with sound as I gave voice to his celebration in Italian America. His lessons of character, patience, fortitude, and faith taught me much about artistry.
Kirsten Keppel Here are some lessons learned from my exhilarating, exhausting and incredible four-month journey of making a close-up on a cream puff.
• Always Apply…Say Yes If You Win!
Last March 15, I applied for a $7500 grant (in 2018, the amount has been increased to $8000) in the Russo Brothers Italian American Film Forum. I completed the application questions in under an hour. I had reflected upon them for a lifetime! My great aunts made zeppole every March 19 in upstate New York. I wanted to know more about this cream puff that flavored an otherwise austere time during Lent. Why had my great aunts always instructed me to thank Saint Joseph for my home and family?
From videography for AMHS in 2010 and 2015, and from formal study of ethnography and memoir reading in graduate school, I knew that Italian America was not a tell-all culture. The reality is that our stories contain rupture and the trauma of uprooting, emigrating, starting over in a foreign land, preserving language or losing it to outside pressures, and coming together in community. I knew to be mindful of this past when seeking potential on-camera storytellers.
Thanks to a conversation with AMHS founder Gloria Sabatini in 2010, I knew that my roots in the Italian boot meant that I could hear stories with my heart, yet other roots and life experiences meant that I had developed the distance needed to listen with a journalist’s eye and storyteller’s ear. St. Joseph offered a model of saying yes to what presented itself, and then being present to what unfolded. Instead of inserting my ego into what I thought should be said, my heart could listen more deeply for what wanted to be told.
• Start Close to Home…and Stay There
Not overreaching was and is the most difficult lesson to integrate. My initial vision of capturing five to six Little Italy communities onscreen proved unrealistic and unwieldy. Right here at home, however, I noticed that Saint Joseph seemed to be appearing naturally!
Last May 15, two weeks after learning about the grant, I attended an AMHS luncheon with Domenica Marchetti, author of Preserving Italy. My friend and I sat down at Carmine’s Restaurant across from two friendly women attending their first AMHS event. When I shared with them that I had just won a film grant, one said, “Oh, my family is in its 99th year of celebrating Saint Joseph’s Day,” and whipped out pictures on her iPhone to show me! Talk about divine! Two months later, I filmed Karen Kiesner and her father Julian Schimmenti in Woodbridge, Virginia. Julian is the first face to appear in the film. Audiences find his obvious zest for baccalà endearing.
Another synchronicity occurred when I had given up on finding a way to include New Orleans in the film. One Friday evening last July, I said a prayer to let go of worry. Then I ran into my neighbor in the lobby. When he said he was going home for the rest of the summer, I asked, “Where’s home?” I about fell over when he replied, “New Orleans.” I asked, “So you know about the St. Joseph’s Day tradition?” He replied, “Know it? I live it! Every year I get my fava bean!” That Sunday at 8:00 a.m., I knocked on his door with a release form. A half hour later, he was on his way to the airport, while I was transcribing his interview.
• It Takes What It Takes…and Retakes
From June through August, I went to Baltimore six different times to film four different sets of interviews, a tricolor fire hydrant, bocce ball courts, the exterior of St. Leo the Great Catholic Church, and Italian street signs.
St. Joseph table at NIAF event on March 19
The first time I went to Baltimore on June 11, the Saint Anthony Festival had drawn up to 10,000 people. Legend has it that in the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, the parishioners of St. Leo’s ran outside, imploring Saint Anthony’s intercession. According to legend, the wind changed direction, and Little Italy was spared devastation. Every year since, residents have thanked the saint with a big party on his feast.
When I met Antonio Villaronga, the film’s editor and muse, as well as musician, I could not help but think back to that first trip to Baltimore! When Jackie Steven of Arlington Independent Media connected me to Antonio, I knew I had met the person to whom I could entrust the film’s heart. It soon became clear that the film’s emotional heart lay in Baltimore.
I did not know anyone in Baltimore when I began the project. After applying, I had gone exploring at the Cleveland Park Library, where I found Suzanna Rosa Molino’s book Baltimore’s Little Italy: Heritage and History of the Neighborhood (Baltimore: The History Press, 2015). Suzanna, who runs the Little Italy Promotion Center, had left her e-mail in the book. When I wrote to her, she offered to connect me to Joseph Tusa, who brought the tradition to St. Leo’s from New Orleans.
After our first interview, Joe said he would try to “find a few volunteers” willing to speak. On a hot Saturday morning, with St. Leo’s church bells pealing, each of the gorgeous ladies you see walked into the church basement, carrying books, prayer cards, memorabilia, stories, and dedication. I found their beauty of spirit and their trust moving. I wanted to tell the film’s story in the same humble and loving spirit. It was hard not to cry or laugh when each was sharing! I felt instantly at home with these ladies. And so have film audiences.
• Do the Groundwork…Leave Room for Grace
Film reality is less glamorous than the final product! Professional liability insurance, volunteer accident insurance, and a good relationship with an insurance broker are the parts the public never sees! City film offices, filming fees, and archdiocesan permissions come with the whole process. It was a steep learning curve.
In October, I learned that Ringraziamenti had won one of the three finalist slots! What an honor for us all! To be graced with the opportunity to create community through language and art elicits the highest form of gratitude I can possibly express
Ringraziamenti: The Saint Joseph’s Day Table Tradition was a semi-finalist in the 2017 Russo Brothers Italian American Film Fest. See the film online at
and