Woods Hole Film Festival: A Cherry Pie Christmas

Woods Hole Film Festival presents its Dinner & A Movie series on Saturday, December 6, with the feature documentary VIVA VERDI! by Yvonne Russo.

The screening takes place at 7 PM at Redfield Auditorium, 45 Water Street, Woods Hole. Doors open at 6:30 PM. Tickets are $18, $12 for members and $10 student/military.

VIVA VERDI! feature documentary by Yvonne Russo, USA, 77 mins., 2025, English and Italian

In 1896, famed composer Guiseppe Verdi built a unique retirement home, Casa Verdi, in Milan, Italy for musicians to live out their lives in retirement. VIVA VERDI! is an intimate glimpse into the lives of the celebrated opera singers and musicians currently living out their ‘third act’ while mentoring international music students who live among them at Casa Verdi.

From these ‘guests’ of Verdi, ages 77 to 107, comprised of international opera singers, ballet dancers, musicians, conductors and composers, we hear an extraordinary array of personal and professional stories filled with music, magic and passion, and ultimately learn why Verdi called this remarkable home his “best work.

With “little altars” to Verdi in every corner, and music and memories in every room, the cross-generational mixing of young and old, held together by an implacable commitment and relentless passion for music, creates a highly charged atmosphere where the human spirit transcends both time and space. As stories of romance, tragedy and triumph abound from these living treasures, it’s easy to see Verdi’s vision thriving – a life-affirming reminder of how music moves us at a fundamental level; how nurturing artistic expression can be life- enhancing and nourishing to the spirit at any age; and how one distinctive retirement home has reclaimed and enriched thousands of artists’ lives.

Award-winning filmmaker Yvonne Russo is the director of VIVA VERDI! She is currently serving as director/producer of RING OF FIRE: The Life of Annie Mae Aquash, a true-crime docuseries currently in production, produced by Amy Kaufman and Caroline Waterlow with Jake Gyllenhaal’s, Nine Stories. Most recently, she directed, produced and wrote the PBS animated short, MINNIE’S WAR BONNET. A producer on KELLY’S BAR, an independent feature with Casey Affleck’s Sea Change Media, Russo worked for 15 years on a diverse slate of domestic and international television and film projects for such companies as HBO, National Geographic Channel, Discovery/TLC, and the CBS/Smithsonian Channel. A member of the Academy of Television and Sciences, she is also a member of the Producers Guild of America where she formerly served on the Board of Governors. A Board Member of NYWIFT, Russo divides her time between New York and Los Angeles and is a member of the Sicangu Lakota Tribal Nation.

ABOUT DINNER & A MOVIE

Dinner & A Movie is a program of the Winter/Spring Film Series, twice-monthly in-person screenings of independent film from September 2025 through June 2026. The screenings will be held in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Redfield Auditorium, located at 45 Water Street, Woods Hole.  

Tickets are on sale in advance at www.woodsholefilmfestival.org and at the door if they are not sold out in advance.

Before the screening ticket holders may receive a discount on the meal portion of dinner at the Captain Kidd Restaurant and Bar, 77 Water Street, Woods Hole and Quahog Republic Leeside Pub, 29 Railroad Ave, Woods Hole. Ticket holders must make reservations directly with the restaurant.

For more information email info@woodsholefilmfestival.org or call (508) 495-3456.