500-year-old Italian 'Festa' to celebrate the Virgin Mary featured at Hamilton Film Festival

It's been more than 500 years since Racalmuto got its Virgin Mary statue, as the legend has it, and the Sicilian town hasn't stopped celebrating since.

Racalmuto's annual festival honouring the statue and the story behind it — which involves a count, a cave, and the discovery of the hidden relic — has continued to this day, and is mirrored by an event in Hamilton featured this week in the Art Gallery of Hamilton Film Festival.

Festa, by local director Terrance Odette, screens at the The Playhouse Theatre to a sold-out crowd on Friday at 6:30 p.m. It will also be shown Saturday at 11:30 a.m., part of a diverse roster of Canadian and international films screened live and online as part of the film festival between Oct. 15 and Oct. 24. 

Odette says Festa, a documentary, is about the dedication of the local descendants of Racalmuto and the lengths they go to in order to continue the festival tradition from their home country that includes parading a Virgin Mary statue through the streets, as well as plenty of music, food and dancing. 

"All the women, men, everybody takes their place," said Odette on Tuesday. "The kids are dressed up in traditional outfits from Racalmuto and some of them are even teenagers. For the procession, they take it all very seriously. There's a certain degree of kitsch, but also a reverence for their dedication to their community."

The festival dates back to 1503 and the story of an Italian count who was hunting in North Africa and took shelter from a storm in a cave. His crew found a Virgin Mary statue there and brought it back to Italy. While passing through Racalmuto, either his cart got stuck or his oxen refused to keep going — depending on the telling — and there the statue stayed, being feted every year since.

Joe Curto, the president of Hamilton's Festa Maria SS. Del Monte, or St. Mary of the Mountain Festival in English, says many local Racalmuteses are attending Friday's sold-out show. He says a lot of what goes on at the festival might be confusing to an outsider, as it largely mimics the proceedings of the event in Racalmuto, but the community is eager to share its culture with anyone who wants to learn more.

He adds that he hopes the film helps explain to Hamiltonians why the area around Murray Street and James Street North is called Corso Racalmuto — it once was home to more descendants of the Sicilian town than Racalmuto itself.

"People will see the historical significance of (the Fratellanza Racalmutese Italian Club) and why it's there," he said, noting people from the town first started coming to Hamilton to find work after the First World War. 

In addition to Festa, the film festival also features several local works in its series of short films screening Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Westdale Theatre and online all week, says curator Ryan Ferguson. 

Ferguson says other standout screenings at the festival include: