Launching the ACIS Visual and Performance Studies group's project: 'Italian Cinemas in Melbourne from Post War Migration to The Movie Show (SBS).'

There has been a great deal of interest in the first public event of the ACIS Visual and Performance Research Group’s project ‘Italian Cinemas in Melbourne from Post War Migration to The Movie Show (SBS).’ The launch event, sponsored by CO.AS.IT  and to be held at their Melbourne premises on 16 August, is already fully subscribed with a waiting list.

However you can hear about the initiatives of the project in this recent interview with one of the group’s chief investigators, Elisabetta Ferrari, on SBS radio.

The project team is Santo Cilauro (Working Dog), Elisabetta Ferrari (University of Melbourne), Mark Nicholls (University of Melbourne), and Susanna Scarparo (University of Sydney). Their project  aims to provide a comprehensive overview of ways in which Italian language cinemas contributed to the reception and distribution of Italian cinema in Melbourne from the post-WWII mass migration period until the advent of SBS in the late 1970s. For a great number of migrants, Italian language cinemas represented an important way to connect to their cultural heritage while also providing significant social and recreational opportunities. In the pre-SBS period various Melbourne cinemas and improvised screening spaces were dedicated to screening films exclusively in Italian. Consequently, the Italian language cinemas contributed significantly to reinforcing the developing multiculturalism in Melbourne.

If you are interested in hearing more about the project, and/or have stories or items that may be of interest for the group's forthcoming Italian Cinemas in Melbourne Podcast and Italian Cinema Posters exhibition, please contact either

• Elisabetta Ferrari 

or

• Mark Nicholls