Skip to the content

A NEW ITALIAN POLITICAL CINEMA?

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

 

  • Explore the growing significance and implications of cinematic representations of political and socio-economic problems in Italy through academic, interdisciplinary and practical perspectives;
  • Evaluate the differences between filmic representations of Italy’s political and socio-economic problems and the testimonies of the research network’s professional participants. Are directors’ depictions of society merely motivated by a desire for fresh appearance forms and stark local colour, or by a radical impulse for change?
  • Inaugurate a critical approach towards film scholarship that is based on empirical personal testimony and statistical data, as well as on theoretical argument;
  • Revisit the writings of Terry Eagleton and Fredric Jameson and consider whether Italian cinema is a locus where the ideological and political hegemony of dominant socio-economic groups is realistically depicted and challenged. Conversely, have films from the past twenty years merely produced imaginary narrative resolutions to the social antagonisms that they portray?
  • Investigate the factors that condition the production and diffusion of radical films in Italy and evaluate their impact on film-makers;
  • Establish criteria for the successful creation of radical film-making and for a more sensitized critical reception of politicized film-making;
  • Enable young researchers and professionals outside academia to participate in Film Studies and shape its future;
  • Foster new perspectives through interdisciplinary, practical, and international collaboration.

The co-ordinator of A New Italian Political Cinema? is Dr William Hope (Salford). He can be contacted at: W.Hope@salford.ac.uk

 

WORKSHOP PARTICIPATION

A series of workshops forms the first phase of A New Italian Political Cinema?  Each workshop will be chaired by several facilitators including migrant workers, trade unionists, political activists, and academics; we are in the process of finalizing their participation.  Participation at one of the workshops should be considered a prerequisite for involvement in the project’s subsequent stages. Workshop places are limited and currently the Adelaide workshop is the only event where places are still available. The timeframe covered by the project is Italian cinema from the early 1990s to the present day, with a particular emphasis on new millennium films. Workshop participants are invited to prepare a brief, ten minute presentation on one or two key films from this period, a presentation that will form the basis for group discussion. Indicative topics for discussion include (but are by no means limited to):

  • The commodification and privatization of Italy’s landscapes and resources as depicted on screen
  • Cinematic representations of economic migrants and asylum seekers in Italy
  • Cinema and the workplace; capital, labour, precariato, workplace fatalities
  • Filmic representations of institutional oppression and/or political extremism in Italy
  • Italy’s political past revisited on screen
  • Cinematic representations of socio-economic alienation and marginalization
  • Screen explorations of gender and sexuality
  • New age antiheroes; film characters as embodiments of capitalist values
  • Italian cinematic perspectives regarding the effects of capitalism in an international context
  • The depoliticization of Italian cinema and society
  • The production and distribution difficulties facing “political” film-makers

Interested parties should contact the project co-ordinator, William Hope (W.Hope@salford.ac.uk), with the following information, which will then be circulated to other institutions involved in organizing the project.  Currently, only the Adelaide workshop has places available; for the Cremona workshop we are in the process of establishing a reserve list in case any speakers withdraw.

Colleagues interested in being put on this list are welcome to complete the following form. Please copy and paste the above information into an email and send it to:   W.Hope@salford.ac.uk.

Name:

Institution (and position)/Profession:

Email contact address:

Preferred Workshop:

London (27/11/2010)   No places available

Adelaide (29/04/2011)    Places available

Cremona (09/07/2011)  No places currently available but please see above information about the event’s reserve list.

Workshop presentation

Film(s)/director to be discussed:

Brief theoretical orientation of presentation (150 words max.):

 

LONDON WORKSHOP ABSTRACTS