The full-length coffee documentary is a marvelous sight to behold. But there’s nothing quite like experience a film in its truest form, inside of a proper theater, with the sound and picture and audience energy all around you. And that’s exactly what happened in November 2025, when Accademia del Caffè Espresso and La Marzocco premiered the film The Rise of Espresso at an invite-only event at New York City’s Crosby Street Hotel.
The Rise of Espresso documents Italian emigrants who, throughout the years, have promoted espresso coffee culture all over the world. The film, from director Enrico Ventrice, “tells the story of espresso from an Italian tradition to a global cultural phenomenon” with a focus on global emigrants from Italy. These folks—many now in their 70s and 80s—helped lay the building blocks for international coffee culture today, and this film is a vital primary source material capturing their stories and lessons for future generations.
Above all else this is a story of people, with more than 30 individual interviews featured across the film, tracing the growth and evolution of coffee as a major cultural force across the 20th century. Interviewees include Frank Depasquale, Carlo Di Ruocco, Salvatore Malatesta, Michael Del Gatto, and many more.
The NYC premiere gathered together a who’s who of coffee industry leaders and visionaries, including La Marzocco Honorary President Kent Bakke (founder of the Bakke Coffee Museum), CEO of De Longhi Professional Guido Bernardinelli (the film’s Creative Producer), Chris Salierno (CMO at La Marzocco Global), and visionary founders of major coffee companies from the last 50 years of coffee culture around the world.
After the screening, a Q&A was hosted by Paul Kelly (La Marzocco UK) and featuring Guido Bernardinelli, Enrico Ventrice, Assad Benabid (Coffee Professional), and Fabio De’Longhi (CEO of De’Longhi). Following the Q&A guests enjoyed a lively hosted reception at the Crosby Street Hotel, with old friends and new meeting up and swapping stories from a life in coffee.
For more information about The Rise of Espresso, visit the Accademia del Caffè Espresso’s official website.
Photos by Robert Carlo.
