Italian American One Voice Coalition

Founded 1993

Chairman email: Dr. Emanuele Alfano

Spielberg's Tokyo Underworld

One Voice Help Sought For Level Playing Field

AUG. 2000 - BLOOMFIELD, N.J. -- Giorgio DiPaolo, Director, Italian Jewish Holocaust History Committee has asked the Italian-American One Voice Committee members for help in protesting a film proposed by Stephen Spielberg.

One Voice Chairman Manny Alfano said, "We are not looking to censor. We want a balance!"

"Giorgio needs help from our One Voice activists. He's looking to put pressure on Stephen Spielberg in order to make him realize that Italian/Americans need a level playing field and it's time this unfair practice of defaming Italian/Americans," Alfano said.

"Giorgio would like to send 100 letters. I think if we take 5-10 minutes ( a few short sentences) from our busy day to write a letter we might convince Stephen that many of us have had enough of these negative stereotypes. Let him know that this is not something we take lightly and it's time for balance."

Alfano called on One Voice activists to "Please write and get your email pals to do the same. Let us speak with One Voice! This is a great way to show we can unify."

Send your email to Stephen Spielberg c/o Giorgio

Here is the request received by One Voice:

Thank you for helping with this cause and by providing me with a letter to Mr. Spielberg. At this point in time our strategy is to conduct a small scale letter writing campaign (~100 letters) tied with a publicity push
in all the Italian American papers regarding the development of a film by a company owned by Steven Spielberg that seeks to dishonor Italian-American WWII veterans.

Any assistance by your members in writing letters or recommending local Italian-American papers/magazines would be greatly appreciated. I have encouraged those who have written letters to keep it simple (1 page preferably) , personal, and to the point. It should state that this movie must be stopped, why, and that his respect will grow with such a decision (or something of this manner). The deadline is this Friday for these letters (however, I will still accept those after this date).

We have already received feedback from Mr. Spielberg's company from our initial letter and are in the process of increasing the pressure on them to stop funding of this film.

Take care and I look forward to your assistance regarding this important matter. God bless you and your work for the Italian American community.

Giorgio DiPaolo
Director, Italian Jewish Holocaust History Committee
Contact information:
708.485.5035
509.277.7976 fax
projectbellavita@juno.com
P.O. Box 16, Brookfield, IL 60513

A Sample Letter:
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Mr. Spielberg:

"Tokyo Underworld" will be movie about 500 where Italian-Americans are cast as criminals.

This is ethnic genocide!

Does anybody in Hollywood believe in the "Golden Rule" "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you "?

Hollywood "likes to do unto others" but how would you react if so many movies were made unjustly targeting you heritage as constantly negative?

Italian-American One Voice Committee is a national network of activists enabling the Italian-American community to act as one united voice when dealing with defamation, discrimination and negative stereotyping. Member organizations provide a liaison with the IA One Voice Committee to disseminate information to the Italian-American community and protest with one voice against each outrage against our heritage, culture and character.

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Chairman email: Dr. Emanuele Alfano