Cries from the Cotton Field (2025)

Feature-length documentary saga of Italians who were unscrupulously recruited to work cotton fields in the American South, after the Civil War, and their resilient journey of hope, hardship and faith. Told in first person by parish priest Father Pietro Bandini, a "Moses-like" figure expelled by the Jesuits, who led his flock out of death and despair, to a new beginning in the Ozark hills. The Italian enclave Bandini founded, Tontitown, still thrives in Northwest Arkansas. Arkansas PBS broadcast September 2024. Streaming venues fall 2024. https://vimeo.com/794374250