Seeing the name Alessandro Negrini on the Irish Fest schedule this year might make you stop and look twice. But it's not a mistake; no, the film did not arrive too late for last month's Festa Italiana.

The Italian filmmaker, who was born in Turin and now lives in Derry, Ireland, has good reason to be here.

The festival, which runs Aug. 18-21 on the Henry Maier Festival Grounds, will screen films in its Cultural Pavilion this year, and one of them is Negrini's "Paradiso."

"Paradiso" is a 60-minute documentary shot in Derry. It tells the story of 70-something Roy Arbuckle, who is trying to get his old showband, The Signetts, back together.

But this is not strictly a music picture. Arbuckle – who has performed at Milwaukee's Irish Fest in the past – hopes The Signetts' reunion will bring Protestants and Catholics on to the dance floor to overcome years of division and fear.

"The origin of 'Paradiso' was a mistake," Negrini says via email from Ireland. "Once I was looking for a shortcut and I got lost in the Fountain, the estate in the centre of Derry. From that moment it became a mission for me to portray these people, to understand why they are living behind a fence.

"But also, I didn't want to make a film about the 'Troubles,' the war in Northern Ireland. I wanted to make a film where at the end we can leave our seat in the cinema with this thought: Instead of being afraid of the other, shouldn't we just ... dance?"

Negrini says one of the best outcomes of the project for him was getting to know his subjects personally.

"I had the privilege to meet Roy Arbuckle, who is in my opinion a poet, someone capable to raise to a poetic level the interpretation of reality," he says. "And lucky to discover May Hamilton and Kathleen McKane, the two sisters from the Fountain who let us wonder who is really younger between us and them."

The film has won a number of awards, including in India, Bangladesh, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Italy – where it nabbed the best documentary prize in Rome's Arcipelago festival – and England, where it was honored at the We The People Film Festival in London.

Negrini's previous films include "Memories of Ice and Fire," "Lies and Waves," "The House of Phrases," "Priority Mail" and "Immagini – Mad Portraits."

"We were first told of the film during a trip to Derry by Milwaukee Irish Fest executive director Jane Anderson in January of this year," says Brian Witt of Irish Fest. "Roy Arbuckle, of Different Drums of Ireland, the focal point of the film, has been at the festival many times in the past number of years. His name was the initial draw. The story behind the film is what kept us interested."

Negrini will be on hand for the screenings of the film here, which will take place at 6 p.m. Friday, 12:15 p.m. Saturday and 5:30 p.m. Sunday. He will introduce each of the three screenings of the film and Arbuckle, who performs this year at Irish Fest with Different Drums, will do a talkback session at at least one of the screenings.

"Alessandro has one of the most infectious personalities I have ever encountered," says Witt. "He is a cheerleader for this film, but he makes you buy into his belief in it. And the other thing is, the film is good. It has won too many prizes across the globe to even dispute that point. His background of growing up in Italy gave him a neutral status, and a neutral eye for the subject."

Among the other films on tap this year are "Dance, Lexi, Dance," "Agnes Jones," "Dancing at Lughnasa," 'Francie Mooney," "Proud" and "Shine of Rainbows."

All of the pictures center around Derry and nearby Donegal, says Witt.

"One of the purposes of the Derry/Londonderry push this year at the festival is to help to heal the wounds of the past decades," he says.

"This movie shows that efforts don't have to be grandiose to start the process. What can be more basic than a rock band reuniting in a hall that seats only a couple of hundred people, looking to play for those who danced to their music decades before, with no message other than 'We are all the same.' There is no battering of skulls with sentiments like 'We have to pretend our worlds didn't change in the decades of the Troubles.' The world changed for them, but at some point you can go back to a gentler time."

You might be unaware that cinema plays a role at Irish Fest, but Witt says films are not new to the event.

"We have been screening Irish movies for decades," he says. "The small venue we use, a 30-seater, is called the 'Volta,' named for the first movie theatre in Dublin."

With Derry/Londonderry designated the U.K. City of Culture for 2013 – the first Irish city to get that distinction – Witt says Negrini is a natural for inclusion among the Derry films at Irish Fest this year.

"The arts scene in the city is amazingly vibrant, as they are strong in film, painting, muralism and theatre," he says. "Alessandro fits well into the culture of the area."