Finding Home: Journey of an Italian Immigrant

Abstract

This paper accompanies an interactive multimedia documentary that tells the story of the Carlevaro family’s journey from Palermo, Sicily to New York City, then to Brooklyn, Rutherford, NJ and eventually Stony Point, NY. The documentary explores the Italian immigrant experience in early 20th century Manhattan and the subsequent experiences of my great-grandparents Rudolph and Evelyn as Italian-Americans making their way in their new home. In this paper I describe the personal and academic occurrences that led to the pursuit of this topic, as well as the technological and creative processes I underwent in the making of this documentary. The documentary, Finding Home: Journey of an Italian Immigrant, is available at <http://juniperstudiopro.com/findinghome/> and as an ebook in the iTunes and iBooks stores on any compatible iOS device.