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 twentieth-century grand tour will wend from Sicily through Amalfi, Rome, Bologna, and Milan before ending in Venice.

Films will be presented on DCP.