By David F. Rooney
Italian filmmaker Nicola Moruzzi is coming to Revelstoke next week to conduct research for his next film.
“At the moment the title of the film is Revelstoke because that’s where my great grandfather Angelo arrived in 1914, working as a labourer,” he told The Current in an e-mail this weekend.
“The documentary deals with my personal research of his footsteps, from early 1913 in Vancouver till the day he died, during the construction of the Connaught Tunnel in 1915.”
Moruzzi said he hopes to make contact with Italian-Canadians “whose parents or grandparents worked for the CPR or (on) the Connaught Tunnel construction site.”
Anyone who would like to speak with Moruzzi should send him an e-mail at nicolamoruzzi@gmail.com.
“People who are interested in talking to me… can just send me their phone via e-mail and I will call them back,” he said.
Moruzzi will arrive in Revelstoke on September 20.
The Connaught Tunnel ran beneath Rogers Pass on the CPR main line between Calgary and Revelstoke. At 5.022 miles (8.082 kilometres) in lengthy it was, at the time it was built, the longest railway tunnel in North America. Dug under Mount Macdonald (9,492 feet or 2,893 metres) to ease growing traffic experienced between 1910 and 1913, it replaced the dangerous Rogers Pass route. It was named for the then-Governor General of Canada, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught.
Moruzzi is a freelance filmmaker and editor. In 2010 he directed Fair Tales, a road-documentary shot in North Africa, Italy and Spain, broadcast by TV3 Barcelona. As a filmmaker he collaborated with Rai Tre, MTV, Fox International Channels and many others. He is co-founder of Fake Factory Srl, a film production company based in Rome that specialises in documentary films and advertising.
