inVisible.The Pioneers of Cinema – Exhibition Opening November 13 | 4.30 PM

inVisibles. The Women Who Pioneered Cinema

Opening
November 13 | 4.30 PM 

Launch of inVisibles: The Women Who Pioneered Cinema,
with Senator Lucia Borgonzoni,
Undersecretary of State at the Italian Ministry of Culture,
and Antonio Saccone, President of Cinecittà

As cinema took its very first steps, women were already there, shaping its journey, and not just as spectators but as protagonists – both in front of and behind the camera – in movies that everyone was hailing in theaters.

Early cinema didn’t discriminate: it set off with women, just as well. Actually, in many Western countries – Italy, France, the United States – the silent era saw the strongest presence of women in the film industry.

Although for decades the audiovisual world has been mainly dominated by the viewpoint of men, at the dawn of the 20th century, women tackled all sorts of jobs, proving their skills not just as performers, but also in technical, creative and leadership roles.

By examining sources and materials overlooked or not fully examined for years, a thick layer of dust and silence that had settled on these early female filmmakers is slowly disappearing. Lost films are found (sometimes even just short clips), along with screenplays, old magazines and documents kept in film archives, public records or even by heirs.

Rediscovering this material can open exciting new ways to understand and appreciate the contribuitions of women’s creativity in the early days of cinema. It’s also about restoring dignity to the women who contribuited to creating and developing the Seventh Art while piecing together their life stories – essentially, making them once again inVisible.

The aim of this exhibition, covering a time span from the early 1900s to the early 1940s, is to help rediscover incredibly modern works that featured emancipated, unconventional and remarkably modern female characters.

Seventeen “pioneers” are thus displayed in their professional chronological order, starting with Elvira Notari, the first major italian female director whose 150th birthday anniversary falls this year, and ending with the voice actress Rosetta Calavetta.