Il formato ridotto in Italia tra estetiche del quotidiano e sensibilità materiali

At the beginning of the 1920s, the first small-gauge cinema devices began to spread domestically. From that moment on, a parabola of extremely diversified experiences and social uses gradually emerged. Passing through a period of cohabitation and hybridisation with analogue video, this phenomenon arrived approximately the end of the 1980s. However, such a “short twentieth century” full of stories and practices has not yet been adequately studied and investigated syncretically and transversally. To update the historical investigation on amateur cinema considering the centenary of the 9.5mm (Pathé-Baby in 1922) and 16mm (Eastman Kodak in 1923) formats, this dossier aims to outline the state of the art on new archival sources, methods and research tools in the field, with a specific focus on the Italian case. The selection we are proposing includes analyses and research perspectives on small-gauge cinema both as a device for recording and transmitting personal and family memories, and as a low-cost medium available to individuals and groups for multiple production and expressive purposes in different contexts (parishes, educational centres, film clubs, etc.). Taking on often original and unprecedented interpretations (transculturality, emotional geography, cultural climatology, media archaeology, performativity theory), it emerges forcefully how amateur cinema is configured, in a broader sense, as a medium of popular culture and today, thanks above all to the work of artists and archives, a powerful tool for local and national communities to confront their historical heritage.