Walking past the high-end boutiques that now line New York’s West Village neighborhood, it’s hard to imagine that just decades ago, pushcarts crowded the sidewalks and children played street games beneath the brick tenement buildings. But once you’re in the kitchen of the Graziano family apartment at 347 Bleecker Street, those long-gone days suddenly seem as near and real as the garlic being chopped by Aunt Lillian.
In the documentary short, How to Stuff an Artichoke, filmmaker Cybele Policastro invites you to have a seat and stay a while as Lil prepares the succulent dish that’s brought family to the table at Bleecker Street for generations. As the pot simmers on the stove, Cybele’s mother offers an intimate look at old photographs and 8 mm home movie footage — with stories that take you right back to her Italian-American father’s corner fruit and vegetable store, to her fateful meeting with the handsome artist she’d eventually marry, and beyond.
By sharing the experiences that have shaped their lives, both Lil and Olga provide unique insight into both a family and a neighborhood in transition. And while things are indeed changing, How to Stuff an Artichoke reminds us that there is still plenty to slow down, relax, and savor.