The Popular School of Lorenzo Milani and Its Social Representation in Italian Cinema and Television

The contribution is the abstract of a presentation on the popular school of Lorenzo Milani and its social representation in Italian cinema and television. The research – based on the analysis of the three films that to date have been devoted to Milani (1975, 1976, 1997), and of nine documentaries, made between the Sixties and the beginning of XXI century – shows that the cinema and TV reconstructions remained true to historical fact in narrating the absolute originality and uniqueness of Milani’s school, bringing audiences to appreciate the exceptional nature of this model. At the same time, however, these films and documentaries have supplied the collective memory of Italians with an ideal vision of schooling that is rich with novel pedagogical and social perspectives.