Sicilia!

Sicilia! is a 1999 Italian black-and-white film directed by Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub. Sicilia! follows a man returning to visit his homeland of Sicily, after living in New York City for many years. The film is an adaptation of Elio Vittorini's anti-fascist novel Conversations in Sicily, which was first published in 1941.

Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa's documentary on Straub and Huillet, Où gît votre sourire enfoui? (alternately translated into English as Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie? or Where Lies Your Hidden Smile?), was filmed while they were editing Sicilia!.

The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.

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Sicily

Sicily (/ˈsɪsᵻli/ SISS-i-lee; Italian: Sicilia [siˈtʃiːlja]; Sicilian: Sicilia) is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea; along with surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy officially referred to as Regione Siciliana.

Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean. It extends from the tip of the Apennine peninsula, from which it is separated only by the narrow Strait of Messina, towards the North African coast. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, which, at 3,350 m (10,990 ft), is the tallest active volcano in Europe and one of the most active in the world. The island has a typical Mediterranean climate.

The earliest archeological evidence of human dwelling on the island dates from as early as 12,000 BC. At around 750 BC, Sicily had three Phoenician and a dozen Greek colonies, and for the next 600 years, it was the site of the Greek–Punic and Roman–Punic wars, which ended with the Roman destruction of Carthage. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, Sicily frequently changed hands, and during the early Middle Ages, it was ruled in turn by the Vandals, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Arabs and Normans who created the Kingdom of Sicily subsequently ruled by Hohenstaufen dinasty, for a short period by Angevins, later by Iberians dinasties, by the Austrians for a brief time, and then finally unified under the Bourbons with Naples, as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Following the Expedition of the Thousand, a Giuseppe Garibaldi-led revolt during the Italian Unification process and a plebiscite, it became part of Italy in 1860. After the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946, Sicily was given special status as an autonomous region.

Sicilia (Roman province)

Sicilia was the first province acquired by the Roman Republic, organized in 241 BC as a proconsular governed territory, in the aftermath of the First Punic War with Carthage. It included Sicily and Malta, but not the city of Syracuse, on the east coast. (Syracuse remained an independent ally of Rome until after the Second Punic War).

History

During the Second Punic War, Syracuse was allied with Hannibal, but was taken by the Roman commander Marcellus in 212, and was absorbed into the already existing province. It was divided into two quaestorships, Syracuse and Lilybaeum. The Latinizing of the island continued, though the Greek element never entirely disappeared.

It was very important during the republican period for its role in supplying grain to the city of Rome, however it started to lose importance with the conquest of Africa and especially with the annexation of the Ptolemaic kingdom. Nevertheless, the province was to regain its importance centuries later, when Rome lost control over these areas and was forced to turn back to Sicily for her needs.

Free fall

In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. In the context of general relativity, where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on it and moves along a geodesic. The present article only concerns itself with free fall in the Newtonian domain.

An object in the technical sense of free fall may not necessarily be falling down in the usual sense of the term. An object moving upwards would not normally be considered to be falling, but if it is subject to the force of gravity only, it is said to be in free fall. The moon is thus in free fall.

In a uniform gravitational field, in the absence of any other forces, gravitation acts on each part of the body equally and this is weightlessness, a condition that also occurs when the gravitational field is zero (such as when far away from any gravitating body). A body in free fall experiences "0 g".

The term "free fall" is often used more loosely than in the strict sense defined above. Thus, falling through an atmosphere without a deployed parachute, or lifting device, is also often referred to as free fall. The aerodynamic drag forces in such situations prevent them from producing full weightlessness, and thus a skydiver's "free fall" after reaching terminal velocity produces the sensation of the body's weight being supported on a cushion of air.

Freefall (1994 film)

Freefall is a 1994 action film starring Eric Roberts, Jeff Fahey and Pamela Gidley. It is directed by John Irvin, written and produced by David Zito and Les Weldon.

The story tells about undercover INTERPOL agent Grant Orion (Roberts), who, after recently being falsely accused of a crime, attempts to prove his innocence to wildlife photographer Katy Mazur (Gidley) while rescuing her from an assassin organisation led by her fiancé Dex Dellum (Fahey).

Originally intended for a theatrical release, the movie was released straight to VHS in the United States by Vidmark Entertainment and in Canada that same year by Cineplex Odeon. In 2002, Platinum Disc released a DVD of the film.

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Charles "Nish" Bruce

Sergeant Charles Christian Cameron "Nish" Bruce QGM (8 August 1956 – 8 January 2002) was a former British Army soldier and freefall expert of high altitude military parachuting who served in 22 (SAS) Special Air Service (1982–88). He served with the 22 SAS in the Falklands War, on anti-drug operations in South and Central America and in Northern Ireland during Operation Banner for which he was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal in 1986.

He received the South Atlantic Medal in 1982 with B Squadron of the 22 Special Air Service and the General Service Medal with the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment for services in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.

Family & Early Life

Bruce was born in Chipping Norton in 1956, middle son of Ewen Anthony Guy Cameron Bruce. He was the paternal grandson of Major Ewen Cameron Bruce (of Blaen-y-cwm).

Military career

Bruce joined the Parachute Regiment in 1973 at age 17 and in 1978 spent 4 years with The Red Devils Display Team participating in test jumping, international exhibitions and competitions before passing SAS selection and joining 22 SAS in April 1982.