Executive produced by actor-extraordinaire John Turturro, Potentially Dangerous is director Zach Baliva’s first film. The documentary examines a forgotten moment in history, one that is hard to believe but did really happen. Does the filmmaker successfully convey the gravity of the situation, or is the 54-minute runtime too short to do justice to this tragedy?
Shortly after the United States of America entered World War II, the government began rounding up citizens. While the horrible internment of Japanese-Americans is probably what springs to mind, another group was also targeted and labeled potentially dangerous: Italians. The government forced more than 10,000 Italians out of their houses while hundreds of thousands were discriminated against or surveilled. Why? Because someone idiot high up got the bright idea that any Italian must be loyal to their country of origin (an Axis power) and Benito Mussolini. Therefore, they could not be “loyal” to the States. Was there any proof of this for the thousands upon thousands whose lives were ruined by this policy? Of course not. To make matters worse, Italians made up the biggest foreign-born group in the country at the time. In hindsight, the Justice Department issued the following statement: “The impact of the wartime experience was devastating to the Italian American communities in the United States, and its effects are still being felt.”
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“…forced more than 10,000 Italians out of their houses while hundreds of thousands were discriminated against or surveilled.”
Despite running for less than an hour, Potentially Dangerous gives everything breathing room. Historical context, be it an interviewee discussing what happened to them or their family or a more academic setup, allows the total weight of what happened to be understood. The intimate interviews give the proceedings a personal view that makes it all empathetic and engaging.
Potentially Dangerous does not shake up the genre. Interviews and archival footage/photos are the order of the day. But Baliva makes audiences feel as if they are in the room with the subjects, giving the entire affair a very personal feel. The fact that so few people know about the detainment of Italians in the States during WWII is sad but something that the film deftly corrects.
For more information, visit the official Potentially Dangerous site.
"…gives everything breathing room."
