There is something powerful about celebrating where you came from while continuing to pursue where you are going.
That idea sits at the heart of Senoia's Italian Heritage Festival, returning this October 11, 2026 for its fourth year. What began as a celebration of Italian-American culture has grown into a gathering built around food, family, tradition and the stories of people who came to America believing opportunity was possible.
For siblings Cristiana “Cris” Folchitto and Alessandro “Alex” Folchitto, those stories aren't simply history. They're personal.
Cris founded the festival as a way to celebrate generations of Italian Americans who crossed an ocean in pursuit of the American dream. They brought their food, traditions and pride in where they came from, but they also came prepared to work, adapt and build something new.
That spirit is alive in the festival today, but perhaps even more clearly in the lives of the people behind it.
A Dream Tested When Alex came to America in 2011, he had been sponsored to work in special effects. A former captain in the Italian Special Forces, he arrived with an opportunity to begin building a life and career in a new country.
By then, Cris was already building a life of her own in America, working to grow Borgo Italia while navigating the long hours and everyday challenges that come with running a restaurant.
Almost immediately, Alex's new beginning took an unexpected turn. Within months, the man who had sponsored him and brought him to America passed away. And shortly after, Alex and Cris lost their mother.
As Alex adjusted to a new country and those personal losses, Cris continued working to build Borgo. Some seasons at the restaurant were harder than others, and Alex recognized that he needed to find opportunities outside of Borgo to support himself while Cris continued building the business.
There was no easy path or guaranteed outcome. They simply kept working through whatever came next.
The American dream is often told through the ending: the successful business, the career, the celebration. What gets forgotten are the years in between. The uncertainty, losses, long hours and moments when quitting would have been understandable.
For Cris and Alex, perseverance became part of the dream.
Finding Another Way During one of those more difficult seasons, Alex began looking for opportunities outside the restaurant. That's when he noticed an audition seeking someone for a military role and decided to give it a shot.
According to Alex, he took about five steps during the audition before being told he had the part.
Suddenly, the former Italian Special Forces officer who had come to America to work behind the scenes had landed his first acting role.
His military experience opened another door. Alex began training stunt performers, helping them move and operate more authentically on screen. Directors eventually began asking why they should train someone else when Alex could simply do it himself.
One opportunity became another, eventually leading to work on major productions including Avengers: Infinity War, Stranger Things, The Suicide Squad and Captain America: Brave New World.
What began as a way for Alex to find his footing and support himself through a difficult season became a career he never could have planned.
And while Alex was building that career and Cris continued building Borgo, something else was happening. They were becoming part of Senoia.
Today, Borgo has a program that allows someone in need to come in and eat at no charge, no questions asked. For two people who understand what it feels like to navigate difficult seasons, it's a meaningful way to help someone else through one of their own.
They came here looking for opportunity. Along the way, Senoia became home, and they've found ways to share what they've built with the community that became part of their story.
The People Along the Way By the time Neva McIntosh-Connelly arrived in Georgia, she was already an experienced actor and producer. She and her husband, Eric Connelly, had built careers in the Los Angeles film industry, with Neva working across film, television, documentaries and commercial productions and Eric establishing himself as a writer, director, producer, actor. Their move to Georgia was a continuation of those careers.
Somewhere along the way, Neva also walked into Borgo Italia looking for work.
She didn't have restaurant experience, but Cris knew what she did have. Neva could produce films, manage people and solve problems. If she could handle a production, Cris figured she couldprobably figure out a restaurant.
She hired her, and before long Neva was managing the bar.
Years later, that relationship mattered in a way none of them could have predicted.
Alex received a phone call about developing a movie and agreed to do it despite one fairly significant detail: there wasn't a script yet.
But Alex knew the people around him. Neva and Eric weren't simply friends with an interest in filmmaking. Both had served as executive producers on The Great Darkened Days, a critically acclaimed feature that earned eight Canadian Screen Award nominations, including Best Motion Picture, and won five. Neva had the production experience to help turn an idea into something real, and Eric was an award-winning writer and director who could help build the story.
So Alex said yes.
Then they went to work.
Beyond the Movie The film they began developing, The Color of Vengeance, centers on a man born into a powerful organized-crime family who leaves the violence of Rome behind for the Republic of San Marino. There, he discovers honest work, community and the possibility that his future doesn't have to be dictated by his past, until the violence he escaped threatens to pull him back.
San Marino is more than a backdrop for the story. Surrounded entirely by Italy, the small republic has maintained its independence for centuries, building a national identity around liberty, resilience and preserving its way of life.
There is a fitting connection between the place this project is coming from and the place it hopes to reach.
Senoia and San Marino are very different places, but both have identities much larger than their size. Both are proud of their history and deeply connected to the culture and community they've built.
Senoia also knows what the film industry can mean to a small community. Productions have brought people, attention and opportunity here for years. Now, through relationships formed in and around Senoia, a group of filmmakers hopes to carry some of that same opportunity across the Atlantic.
In a way, a community impacted by film now has a small hand in helping another community discover what film might make possible.
Creating Opportunity Across Borders The project brings together Alex and Cris's Gladius Production, Neva and Eric's East Fairy Productions, and San Marino-based 301 Filmont Cinema Studios. Among the team is co-producer Letizia Fabbri, San Marino's first professional stuntwoman and president of 301 Filmont.
Together, they see an opportunity to help establish San Marino as a destination for international film production. Bringing productions there could support local businesses and introduce international audiences to the country, but it could also expose residents to careers in production, stunts, technical work and storytelling that may never have seemed possible before.
That's where making a movie becomes something larger. It's about creating an opportunity and leaving the door open for the person coming behind you.
It's also a fitting extension of what Cris and Alex have built here. They arrived in America looking for opportunity, but their story didn't end when they found it. They embraced the community around them, built relationships, created a festival celebrating their heritage, found ways to help people through Borgo and continued opening doors for others along the way.
What stands out in talking with Cris, Alex and Neva isn't a polished version of success. They speak with intensity about the things they believe matter: family, faith, their work, the integrity of their industry and the responsibility to create something worthwhile for the people coming behind them. Their paths have been different, but there is a shared belief that whatever they build should create room for others to succeed too.
Maybe that's the bigger story behind this year's Italian Heritage Festival. Cris and Alex crossed borders in pursuit of opportunity, carried their heritage with them and embraced Senoia as the community they now call home.
Now the opportunity is moving in the other direction.
From Italy to America. From Senoia to San Marino.
A restaurant, a festival, a friendship, an unexpected audition and a phone call about a movie may seem like separate chapters. Look a little closer and they're connected by people willing to open a door for someone else.
For Cris, Alex and the people alongside them, crossing borders was only the beginning. The opportunity they found along the way is now becoming an opportunity to impact lives on both sides of them.