Cultural and natural resources
Emilia-Romagna has always had a strong cinematographic tradition, with a place of honour in the history of cinema for having spawned major filmmakers like Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Tonino Guerra, Cesare Zavattini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pisolini, Valerio Zurlini, Pupi Avati, Florestano Vancini and Liliana Cavani. Great directors to whom several years ago the Region began dedicating a series of books, “Una regione piena di cinema”, aimed at promoting and raising awareness of their works.
This great heritage of films and audiovisual material is preserved in approximately sixty film archives and cultural centres. The Cineteca in Bologna is the largest, with a collection of over fifteen thousand films covering the history of silent Italian movies to the Soviet film repertoire, the collection of Italian popular cinema from the Thirties to the Sixties and European and Hollywood classics in cinema history in their best known editions. There is also a library which houses over 20,000 volumes on the subject of cinema, 800 periodicals, plus an exhibition on the birth of cinema that includes a reconstruction of an actual film set. Equally important is the Cineteca’s photo archive with approximately 700 thousand pictures, divided into two sections, one on the history of cinema (frames, set photos and portraits) and another on the history of the city of Bologna (positive prints and negatives from the latter half of the nineteenth century). The Cineteca also carries out vitally important film preservation and restoration work through its laboratory "L´immagine ritrovata" (The image restored), Italy’s leading film restoration laboratory. The Cineteca is currently working on the Chaplin Project, restoring the entire cinematic oeuvre of Charlie Chaplin (shorts and features).
In 1995, alongside the Cineteca di Rimini, the Federico Fellini Foundation was also set up at the request of the director’s sister, Maddalena, with financial backing from the City Council, the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio, Bologna University and the Ente Gestione Cinema (Cinema Management Agency) and the support of the Regional Council. Its constitutional remit is to conserve the memory, promote the study and popularize the works and poetics of the great Maestro.
Another important hub for cinema in Emilia-Romagna is the San Biagio Centre in Cesena. This cultural centre, which houses two cinemas, a library specialized in cinema and mass media and an extensive video library, also boasts one of Italy’s most important photo archives, the Museo dell’Immagine, the most recent product of Cesena’s reorganized museum system. Housed inside the San Biagio Cinema Centre, the Museum brings together several archives (Pietrangeli, Contino, etc.) and funds (Novi, Baldi, etc.) established by leading figures connected to the world of cinema, television and photography, acquired over the course of the years. The collection of approximately 30,000 set photographs (including prints and negatives), includes over 250 stills from Luchino Visconti’s “Obsession”. Exhibits of particular interest include the scripts of films never made, written by Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Dario Fo and Suso Cecchi D´Amico.
Emilia-Romagna is also a land of festivals. Bologna plays host to several events of International standing: these include the “Festival del Cinema Ritrovato” (Cinema Restored Festival), eight days devoted to the unbridled passion for cinema and all its wonderful variety (from the eloquence of silent movies to amazing CinemaScope, taking in some truly exciting films which can today be enjoyed in fully restored editions) and “Le Parole dello Schermo” (Words of the Big Screen), a festival of cinema and literature, of images and words, of guests and encounters, popular and high-brow, which asserts equality of artistic, ideological and cultural merit between literature and cinema. For both events, the city’s Piazza Maggiore is transformed into one enormous, impressive projection room. Bologna also hosts the annual “Future Film Festival”, Italy’s leading festival devoted entirely to animated films, the latest digital technology and special effects. Rimini also hosts an event dedicated to animation cinema with the exciting “Cartoon Club” festival.
Finally, another cinema genre in which audiences are showing increasing interest, the documentary, is the focus of the “Bellaria Film Festival”, the “Ilaria Alpi Award” in Riccione and the “Biografilm Festival”, the first event of its kind dedicated entirely to biographies and life stories.
Cineteca in Bologna
Via Riva di Reno, 72 - 40122 Bologna
Tel. 051/204820 - 204826 -
Fax 051/204821
www.cinetecadibologna.it
cineteca@comune.bologna.it
San Biagio Cultural Centre
Via Aldini, 22 - 47023 Cesena
Tel. 0547.355711
Fax 0547.355719-355720
www.cesenainvita.it
ufficiocultura@teatrobonci.it
Federico Fellini Foundation
Via Angherà, 22 - 47900 RIMINI
Tel. 0541.50085-704307
Fax 0541.24885
www.federicofellini.it
fondazione@federicofellini.it
Regional Video Archive
Viale Aldo Moro, 32 - 40127 Bologna
Tel. 051.6395047
Fax 051.515288
http://consiglio.regione.emilia-romagna.it/biblioteca/videoteca/progetti/videoteca_rete/mediateche.htm
cultura@regione.emilia-romagna.it
