The film “Italian Studies” stars Oscar-nominated actress Vanessa Kirby. The director, native New Yorker Adam Leon, shot the film on the streets of New York in 2018, before the pandemic.

Kirby plays Alina, a writer who suddenly loses her memory and begins wandering the streets. She meets various New Yorkers on the journey to find her way back to herself. 

Leon says he shot the film in Manhattan and the outer boroughs. 

What You Need To Know

  • “Italian Studies” was shot in New York City in 2018, before COVID-19

  • Vanessa Kirby, who received an Oscar nomination in 2021 for “Pieces of a Woman,” says “Italian Studies” is not a clinical film about memory loss

  • Director Adam Leon says he shot “Italian Studies” in Manhattan and the outer boroughs

“We shot stuff on Canal Street, you know, where there's thousands of people sort of surrounding Alina,” said Leon. “We shot on July 4, we shot fireworks out in Long Island City, and then shot after the fireworks where just that crowd is really enveloping her, but then would also explore and find very off the beaten paths.”

Kirby says she loved shooting in the city and today realizes they captured a moment in time that New Yorkers haven’t seen since COVID-19 hit in 2020. 

“I love the city so much,” Kirby said. “It’s always been so special to me. I mean, now, it’s wild, in a way, because it really does feel like a period piece. When you look at the crowds and the crowds that I was in without any awareness of what's happened, you know, prior to and in 2018, we had no idea what was coming.”

“Italian Studies” is not a clinical film about memory loss, but Kirby still researched the subject well. 

“All of it was really useful, except that Adam was [like], “I don't want you to do a psychological portrait of someone who's literally lost their memory; I want you to embody a state of being,’” said Kirby. “And that's really challenging because you can't hold on to any rigid things that you can, as a character, assert yourself in the world as being in a way you have to take all those things away.”

Leon said they wanted to explore the impact the environment has on identity. 

“That was a big thing that we have been talking about, how much our environment and our interactions with our environment and our connections to it, and disconnections from it really influenced who we are at that moment, and overall, and so we wanted to capture that idea with the movie.”

“Italian Studies” is playing in theaters and on-demand.