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Stop the Pounding Heart by Roberto Minervini

This Italian Documentaries series evening is dedicated to the screening of Stop the Pounding Heart (Cannes Film Festival selection 2013) by Roberto Minervini, with an introduction by Dennis Lim. Documentary film is a genre that represents one of the most interesting and innovative areas of contemporary Italian cinema; Roberto Minervini is among the most distinguished directors, and his films are screened at the most important international film festivals.

Synopsis: Sara is a young girl raised in a family of goat farmers. Her parents home-school their twelve children, rigorously following the precepts of the Bible. Like her sisters, Sara is taught to be a devout woman, subservient to men while keeping her emotional and physical purity intact until marriage. When Sara meets Colby, a young amateur bull rider, she is thrown into crisis, questioning the only way of life she has ever known. In a stunning portrayal of contemporary America and the insular communities that dot its landscape, Stop the Pounding Heart is an exploration of adolescence, family and social values, gender roles, and religion in the rural American South.

Born in Italy, director, screenwriter and lecturer Roberto Minervini lives and works in the United States. After directing some short films, in 2011 Minervini directed his first feature film, “The Passage”. His second film, “Low Tide”, was presented at the Orizzonti section at the 69th Venice International Film Festival, where he won the Christopher D. Smithers Foundation Award. His third feature film, “Stop the Pounding Heart”, is the last in a trilogy made in Texas. As usual, Minervini’s approach is documentary – almost reportage – like. His movie chronicles the daily life of the protagonists, and the script writing was subsequent to the end of the shooting. He holds a Masters in Media Studies from the New School University of New York.

Dennis Lim is a writer and film curator in New York City. Since 2013 he has been the director of programming at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, where he also serves on the selection committee for the New York Film Festival, as co-chair of the New Directors/New Films programming committee, and as co-organizer of annual and recurring programs including Art of the Real, Print Screen, and Projections.
He was the film editor of The Village Voice from 2000 to 2006 and a frequent contributor to The New York Times from 2006 to 2013. He edited The Village Voice Film Guide: 50 Years of Movies From Classics to Cult Hits (John Wiley, 2006) and has written on film and culture for The Los Angeles Times, Artforum, and Cinema Scope, among other publications. He has taught in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University and the Cultural Reporting and Criticism graduate program at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. His book on David Lynch, The Man From Another Place, part of James Atlas’s Icons series, was published in 2015 by New Harvest.











When: Tue., Apr. 16, 2019 at 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Where: Italian Cultural Institute
686 Park Ave.
212-879-4242
Price: Free
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This Italian Documentaries series evening is dedicated to the screening of Stop the Pounding Heart (Cannes Film Festival selection 2013) by Roberto Minervini, with an introduction by Dennis Lim. Documentary film is a genre that represents one of the most interesting and innovative areas of contemporary Italian cinema; Roberto Minervini is among the most distinguished directors, and his films are screened at the most important international film festivals.

Synopsis: Sara is a young girl raised in a family of goat farmers. Her parents home-school their twelve children, rigorously following the precepts of the Bible. Like her sisters, Sara is taught to be a devout woman, subservient to men while keeping her emotional and physical purity intact until marriage. When Sara meets Colby, a young amateur bull rider, she is thrown into crisis, questioning the only way of life she has ever known. In a stunning portrayal of contemporary America and the insular communities that dot its landscape, Stop the Pounding Heart is an exploration of adolescence, family and social values, gender roles, and religion in the rural American South.

Born in Italy, director, screenwriter and lecturer Roberto Minervini lives and works in the United States. After directing some short films, in 2011 Minervini directed his first feature film, “The Passage”. His second film, “Low Tide”, was presented at the Orizzonti section at the 69th Venice International Film Festival, where he won the Christopher D. Smithers Foundation Award. His third feature film, “Stop the Pounding Heart”, is the last in a trilogy made in Texas. As usual, Minervini’s approach is documentary – almost reportage – like. His movie chronicles the daily life of the protagonists, and the script writing was subsequent to the end of the shooting. He holds a Masters in Media Studies from the New School University of New York.

Dennis Lim is a writer and film curator in New York City. Since 2013 he has been the director of programming at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, where he also serves on the selection committee for the New York Film Festival, as co-chair of the New Directors/New Films programming committee, and as co-organizer of annual and recurring programs including Art of the Real, Print Screen, and Projections.
He was the film editor of The Village Voice from 2000 to 2006 and a frequent contributor to The New York Times from 2006 to 2013. He edited The Village Voice Film Guide: 50 Years of Movies From Classics to Cult Hits (John Wiley, 2006) and has written on film and culture for The Los Angeles Times, Artforum, and Cinema Scope, among other publications. He has taught in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University and the Cultural Reporting and Criticism graduate program at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. His book on David Lynch, The Man From Another Place, part of James Atlas’s Icons series, was published in 2015 by New Harvest.

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