The Joys of the Women celebrates its 20th anniversary with a special screening at the Luna Leederville Cinema in Perth on 29 November as part of the Armadale Film Fest. The screening is supported by the NFSA.

The evening will include a performance by The Joys of the Women choir and a Q&A with singer-songwriter Kavisha Mazzella, who founded the original choir in 1988, and the film’s writer-director, Franco di Chiera.

The film traces Mazzella’s quest to preserve the folk music of her ancestors and also tells a personal story of a woman rediscovering her heritage. As di Chiera recalled:

'The journey to Italy to film was something of a reverse immigrant journey, the first generation children returning to the land of their ancestors only to find a mixture of familiarity and alienation, just as we had felt growing up back “home” in Australia.’

The Joys of the Women enjoyed a national theatrical release in 1993. It helped launch the filmmaking career of di Chiera (see Franco’s IMDb Resume). Mazzella has since won an ARIA Award, NFSA National Folk Recording Award and become a Member of the Order of Australia for services to community and music.

Mazzella continues to collect and arrange folk songs for choirs like Le Gioie Delle Donne (The Joys of the Women) in Fremantle and La Voce Della Luna (Voice Of The Moon) in Melbourne. You can follow The Joys of the Women Italian Choir on Facebook.

Watch clips from The Joys of the Women on ASO. The film is distributed by Electric Pictures.

Screening details at Luna Cinemas and the Armadale Film Fest.

Watch a November 2012 interview about the film with Mazzella and di Chiera on YouTube.