The Screen Writers of America (SAG) Awards in February 2025 presented Riccardo Bruscagli (Professor Emeritus in Italian Literature) and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Ric Burns with the Writers Guild Award for their roles in writing DANTE: Inferno to Paradise, produced by Steeplechase Films and Dante Productions in association with PBS. The deep dive into the riveting life and times of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) details the politics and culture of the late Middle Ages, as well as the birth of the Italian language and humanism itself.
The two-part, four-hour documentary saw Dante played by Antonio Fazzini, Beatrice Portinari by Tori Fattori, and Virgil by Dikran Tulain. Visual excellence defines the documentary, from the atmospheric quarries of Carrara to the spectacular settings of the Baptistery, the Dante Society’s headquarters near Orsanmichele, and Palazzo Tornabuoni. The accompanying expertise was provided by interviewees Catherine Adoyo, Albert Ascoli, Teodolinda Barolini, George Bradley, Theodore Cachey, Claudio Giunta, Manuele Gragnolati, Giuseppe Ledda, Elena Lombardi, Lino Pertile, David Quint, Guy Raffa, Timothy Verdon, Heather Webb, and Riccardo Bruscagli.
Christine Herring, the Senior Creative Consultant for the film, details how the project came about. “The concept behind the documentary is to share Dante with a general, English-speaking audience. How many people thought they could never handle Dante, but now they have a way to access it, in a visually beautiful and historically accurate way. As a Florentine, Dante is in Riccardo’s blood. His unique approach to Dante made him ideal for this project. While he was working on publications for Zanichelli in 2009, we would chat about what Canto he was on while having our morning cappuccino. We speak English at home, so it was a help to him to voice it in another language. It was then that I had this idea. I was thinking how great it is that Italians learn about Dante at such an early age; we expats don’t have that. I wanted him to begin lecturing in English to the expat community in Florence. It was a resounding success. That was in 2014/15. Then, that May, we went to New York where our daughter was in school, and I was telling a friend about Dante and the lectures. She said, ‘My friend is a documentary maker; why don’t I put you in touch.’ And the rest is history!”
