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Over the past decade, growing numbers of filmmakers in Italy have addressed ecological crises in their work. This class takes an eco-critical approach to contemporary Italian cinema, examining a body of compelling place-centered stories that deal with local and global issues. Defining the scope of eco-cinema and the ways we can interrogate films as ecological texts, we shall screen earth-centered films that raise consciousness about the consequences of human manipulation of the natural world; the complicity of industry, government, and organized crime in creating environmental crises; and the effects of economic and social malaise. Screenings include iconic films such as Michelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert (1963), more recent, critically acclaimed films such as Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah (2008), Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro (2018), and many others.