A Special Evening in Naples: Cinema Celebrates a Great Woman's Civic and Political Commitment

In Naples, a special evening with cinema that tells the civic and political commitment of a great woman. "Astradoc - Journey into the Cinema of Reality", the series curated by Arci movie, welcomes to the city an important protagonist of the Italian political and cultural scene of the last seventy years, Luciana Castellina. She will be at the Astra cinema academy on Friday, March 22, 2024, at 8:30 PM to present the work "16 millimeters to the revolution", a film about the life of Castellina made by Giovanni Piperno who intervenes in the hall of via Mezzocannone together with Antonella Di Nocera. "16 millimeters to the revolution" (Italy, 2023, 65') is a production of the Audiovisual Archive of the workers' and democratic movement with the collaboration of Rai teche and with the contribution of the mission structure for national anniversaries and national and international sports events at the presidency of the council of ministers. Sailing through the images produced for the Pci between the '50s and the '80s by great Italian directors and meeting the gaze of Luciana Castellina, a historical communist leader, founder of the Manifesto, never orthodox and still today a tireless political animator, Giovanni Piperno's story wonders what that "giraffe-party", as Togliatti once defined it, strange yet real, was. The film investigates what remains today of that experience that involved millions of people in the attempt to transform themselves and the world. In the journey, the sense of politics made of commitment, solidarity, confrontation, and an idealism still capable of making many hearts beat today re-emerges. Besides the sense of politics in people's lives, the work is also an example of historiography through images that rediscover the cinema of that political generation and a way of making films that is free, experimental, grassroots, empathetic, militant. As Zavattini says in the film, "a cinema of many for many". This film was born from two parallel meetings: one with Luciana Castellina - living memory of a political experience of the past that now seems concluded and unrepeatable, but also, and still today, indomitable activist - and one with the audiovisual archive of the workers' and democratic movement. [...] When the Aamod finally asked me to develop a project centered on the history of the Pci, I had in the meantime met Luciana and, not yet knowing how, I wanted to keep together her extraordinary point of view - of someone who has gone through the history of this party from the post-war period to its dissolution and at ninety-four has not lost the desire to do politics - with the materials of the Aamod that I had so appreciated. On one thing we all agreed: we did not want to make a historical film, nor a nostalgic one, but, a bit utopically, we wanted to address the new generations, trying to convey to them the emotion - and also the effectiveness - of doing politics, of collective civic commitment, of the sense of militancy that a mass organism like the Italian Communist Party, despite all its contradictions, was able to promote and support over its seventy years of life, from the director's notes. The entrance ticket costs 5 euros, reduced to 4 euros for Arci members. The Astra cinema academy is at via Mezzocannone 109. For information and updates, it is possible to visit the social channels of AstraDoc or browse the website www.arcimovie.it. The Astradoc series is curated by Arci movie in collaboration with the University of Naples Federico II, Coinor, and Parallelo 41 produzioni. The series is sponsored by the municipality of Naples.