A year ago, on April 9 2009, an earthquake hit Abruzzo and destroyed its capital, L'Aquila.


People from all over the world showed the victims of that tragedy their sympathy and closeness through a wide range  of initiatives, meant to support the local populations both directly and indirectly. Millions of dollars were sent over to the local population to help rebuild houses, churches, schools, streets, and squares.


A year from then thousands and thousands still live in terrible conditions, confined in tents with no running water, having fought the freezing winter and getting ready to face the extreme summer hit. They send their kids to schools that are barracks; their elders are recovered in ill-equipped hospitals... Most of them have no hope to have their life back any soon.


The Italian-American Community in New York did not forget them. On April 6 the New School's Johnson/Kaplan Hall [2] will host the screening of "Comando&Controllo. State of Exception [3]" directed by Alberto Puliafito and produced by Fulvio Nebbia.


The documentary denounces how the Berlusconi government used the earthquake emergency to suspend civil liberties, bypass the law, and transform the Civil Protection Agency into a join stock company removed from parliamentary oversight. It highlights how it has been the first step towards making the state of exception the normal functioning of Italian democracy.


The screening of the documentary will be followed by a discussion between director Alberto Puliafito and journalist and author Alexander Stille, moderated by Anna Di Lellio, lecturer at the New School, and sociologist, journalist and former United Nations consultant