Martin Scorsese Celebrates U.S. Immigrants at Taormina: ‘With the Exception of Native Americans, We’re All Either Immigrants, Children of Immigrants or Descendants of Immigrants’

Martin Scorsese played up his Sicilian roots and the impact of waves of immigration on the United States as he received a lifetime achievement award Thursday evening at the Taormina Film Festival.

“With the exception of Native Americans, we’re all either immigrants, children of immigrants or descendants of immigrants,” Scorsese said from the stage of Taormina’s Ancient Greek Theatre on a balmy evening with Sicily’s Mt. Etna volcano in the backdrop.

“The country is very young. It’s 250 years old, which is nothing in terms of world history. We’re learning. We’re just crawling. We haven’t begun yet to walk or talk.”

In an emotional speech, Scorsese recalled being a 5-year-old with his family as they watched Roberto Rossellini’s “Paisá” and for the first time hearing from the TV screen the same Sicilian dialect his immigrant grandparents and parents spoke in New York. He recalled his family gathering to watch the film and talking directly to the people that were on the screen.

“It was there in that room, that night, that I had a calling to make movies, and to touch people in the same way that this film touched us that night. So it is Sicily that helped draw me to cinema and cinema drew me to Sicily,” he said.

In presenting the award, Taormina artistic director Tiziana Rocca praised Scorsese for being “the heart of cinema for 50 years” and underlined his work in preserving and popularizing cinema.

In his speech Scorsese, 82, also paid tribute to another Hollywood director with Sicilian roots, Frank Capra, citing Capra’s description of filmmaking as an addiction to which the cure is only to make more films.

Earlier in the day, the Oscar-winning director spoke to Variety about several projects which have brought him to Sicily, including a documentary about marine archeology based on the work of underwater archaeologist Lisa Briggs off the Sicilian coast. Scorsese’s family trace their roots back to Ciminna and Polizzi Generosa, small Sicilian villages which he visited last October. Scorsese, citing Capra’s prolificness, also hinted at another work for which he has started scouting locations in Sicily which he intends to shoot once the filming of the documentary is complete.

“I wonder, where I would be without Italian cinema,” Scorsese said, concluding his speech.

“The debt I owe to Italian cinema and the people that made it and are continuing to make it, is really incalculable. I’ll never stop talking about it, to the entire world, wherever I go and I thank you for this wonderful honor to be here tonight.”

“Thank you for bringing me back home.”