An Illustrated Lecture by Gian Luca Farinelli at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley
Over a century ago, a few years after the birth of the Italian nation and the birth of the new art form of cinema, early camera operators were alert to the potential of documenting the beautiful new country for the international cinema-going market and burgeoning tourist industry. Filmmakers from Germany and France flooded in to join Italian cineastes in documenting the landscapes and customs of far-flung Italian locales from Sicily to Venice. The Cineteca di Bologna has preserved a collection of these travelogues, shot between 1905 and 1914, and the Cineteca’s director Gian Luca Farinelli will present a selection of the most fascinating, providing context for the exquisite images. This early 20th-century grand tour will wend from Sicily through Amalfi, Rome, Bologna, and Milan before ending in Venice.
Gian Luca Farinelli is the director of the Cineteca di Bologna in Italy, one of the world’s premier film archives and a center of film research, preservation, and restoration. Director Farinelli will accept the 2019 San Francisco Silent Film Festival award for the Cineteca’s commitment to silent film preservation and exhibition at the opening night presentation (May 1, 7:00 pm, Castro Theatre) which will feature Bologna’s major new restoration of Buster Keaton's The Cameraman. The 4k digital restoration was undertaken by The Criterion Collection, Warner Bros. and Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna.
Presented in partnership with BAMPFA. Tickets for this event are not covered by SFSFF passes. SFSFF members may receive discounted tickets ($8) in advance through this ticket page.