On Black History Month, the Consulate General of Italy in New York hosts the second edition of “Colors of Italy” to celebrate the contribution and the experience of Black Italians.
Join us on February 22 at 6:00 pm to watch “Autumn Beat”, a movie directed by Italian-Angolan writer and director Antonio Dikele Distefano and Produced by Amazon Original Studio and Indiana Production.
The film screening will be followed by a conversation with the director.
Black History Month is an annual observance originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of the African diaspora. It is celebrated in February in the United States.
Colors of Italy is a hybrid nomadic series curated and produced by Fred Kuwornu and Do The Right Films to explore and promote the rich diversity of identity, culture, and multi-ethnicity experience amongst Italians through art, music, design, fashion, literature, and film.
To attend the event, please register here.
Autumn Beat
“Autumn Beat is an exciting and unprecedented story about Black culture in Italy, and the role of music as a means of redemption and search for identity. ” – Nicole Marganti, Italian Originals at Amazon Studios
Two brothers, Tito and Paco, have the same dream: to break into the rap music world. Paco is a born performer and Tito knows how to write like no other but ambition, life, and love for the same woman will test their bond. The film, which spans three decades, has a cast mostly made of Italian actors of African descent featuring Hamed Seydou, Abby 6ix, Geneme, Juliet Joseph, Dylan Magon, Mohamed Diallo, Marco Renna, Mamy Seny Gueye, Francesco Danquah, and Mafoku Michelle Cloe Kengne, and Italian hip-hop stars Gue Pequeno, Ernia and Sfera Ebbasta.
Antonio Dikele Distefano
In a bid to increase black representation in new Italian cinema, well-known Italian author turned screenwriter Antonio Dikele Distefano made his worldwide debut on Netflix Italia in 2021 with the groundbreaking mini-series, “Zero”, featuring a primarily black cast. “Autumn Beat”, his first movie, was released on Amazon Prime Video in November 2022.
Before connecting with Amazon and Netflix, Antonio had already become an inspiration to many Black Italians through publishing, television, and social media projects. He went on to write five novels for Mondadori between 2014 and 2019, with combined sales exceeding 500,000 copies.
In 2016, he also founded Esse Magazine, an outlet for young Black Italian artists to gain recognition, and recorded video interviews with emerging Black performers. Today, Esse is the largest publication on rap music in Italy.
In addition, Antonio owns the communications agency Cantera, which is developing films aimed at promoting Black performers onto the world stage, so that they are no longer invisible. He is convinced that quality projects that positively portray underserved communities will give people an opportunity to exist.
