“Watch the Pallino”. Bocce Ball in Toluca, Illinois.

Eleonora Mazzucchi (March 07, 2008)
“Watch the Pallino”, a documentary screened Wednesday March 5th at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and presented by Joe Sciorra of the John Calandra Institute, traces the peculiar history of the bocce craze in Toluca. Director Stephanie Foerster returned to her mother’s hometown to capture the annual Labor Day weekend bocce tournament...


Bocce ball is the sport of Italian old men. The very name conjures images of pot-bellied curmudgeons in speedos, with deep tans and cigarettes dangling from their lips, playing an afternoon round on a beach on the Adriatic coast. I always believed the inherent uncoolness of bocce, given its association to the denture-wearing cohort, assured it would never be popular anyplace beyond Italian shores.

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