Speaker Series: Conversation with Filmmaker Davide Battistella, in Florence, Italy | January 4

Monday, January 4, 2021 — 12:00 pm

While making his film about an art conservation project, another poignant story of Renaissance women and babies emerged.

We are ZOOMing to Florence for a live interview with the maker of a recently released documentary, The Innocents of Florence, centered around an orphanage opened in the early 1400s. Battistella set out to capture the fascinating restoration of this building’s renowned Renaissance artwork and the discoveries made as his cameras rolled. His film then blossomed into a story much larger in scope. He will tell us what the relics of the ordinary women in this ancient place revealed, and how he wove all the beauty, glory, history and humanism of the city, its women and its children together on film.

Davide Battistella is a writer and a two-time TED talk speaker, in English and Italian. He moved to Florence inspired by the life of Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi. From here he creates documentaries broadly exploring the themes of people, their daily work and creative life.

For anyone wishing to view the trailer or rent the documentary film (available for a small fee on Amazon.com, and free for Prime members) prior to the program, click here.