lla Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò in New York, on yesterday’s day, the screening of the documentary A Little Fellow: The Legacy of A.P. Giannini, on the occasion of the exhibition «You Can’t Die for a Dollar: The Revolution of Amadeo Peter Giannini”, open until June 1, 2026.
The event, organized in collaboration with Com.It.Es New York and Grow Together Foundation, proposed the vision of the film directed by Davide Fiore and written together with Joe Mancini, followed by a meeting with the director.
The documentary reconstructs the figure of Amadeo Peter Giannini, son of Italian immigrants and founder of what would become the Bank of America, through the account of his idea of finance accessible and based on trust.
Fiore told the genesis of the project, born in 2017: “I discovered this story walking through the city and found a plaque that said the Bank of America first was called Bank Italy”. A random episode that started a long research, marked by the surprise for a little known story: «It seemed too beautiful to be true».
The film’s construction work also required a long process of research and selection of the archive material. “Giannini did not love to be in the spotlight, he did not seek visibility. He was always in the midst of people, never at the center of the image,” the director explained. “We found very few photos and very little video material. But I like this, because in the end in the film you do not constantly see his face, but his actions and testimonies of those who knew him».
Little Fellow thus returns the portrait of a banker who helped finance some symbolic infrastructure in American history, from Golden Gate Bridge to Hewlett-Packard, to support the film industry and economic development during the great crisis of the twentieth century. “For me it was very important this: his inheritance is stronger than his image.”.
Article <i>A Little Fellow The Legacy of A.P. Giannini</i>, the film by Davide Fiore comes from IlNewyorkese.