Description
Book SynopsisBetween 1948 and the end of the 1950s, Italian and American government agencies and corporations commissioned hundreds of short films for domestic and foreign consumption on topics such as the fight against unemployment, the transformation of rural and urban spaces, and the re-establishment of democratic regimes in Italy and throughout Europe. In Schooling in Modernity, Paola Bonifazio investigates the ways in which these sponsored films promoted a particular vision of modernization and industry and functioned as tools to govern the Italian people.
The author uses extensive archival research and various theoretical approaches to examine the politics of sponsored filmmaking in postwar Italy. Among the many topics explored are target audiences and audience response, sources of funding, censorship, debates on cinematic realism, and the connections and differences between American and Italian strategies and styles of documentary filmmaking. Insightful and richly detailed,
Trade Review
'This important empirically rich and theoretically nuanced book is certainly of great interest to researchers in modern Italian history as well as to scholars studying propaganda.' -- Gianluca Fantoni H-Italy October 2016 'Schooling in Modernity is a fascinating account of short films sponsored by Italian and American governments... It makes a convincing argument about the significance of sponsored cinema in negotiating the transition between Fascism and post-war democracy.' -- Norma Bouchard Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies - vol 5:1:2017
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Work, Welfare, Neorealism Chapter 2: Sneaky Sponsors Chapter 3: Filming the Housing Revolution Chapter 4: South Like North Chapter 5: United Europe Starts in School Chapter 6: Histories Through Tabloids Filmography Bibliography
