FOTOROMANZO E POI…
It is an all-Italian story that of the Fotoromanzo, one of the many small silent “revolutions” that helped speeding up the process of alfabetism in our country, despite being underestimated by the intellectual world for its triviality and apparent sentimental ingenuity. Spazio Gerra dedicates an exhibition-research to the the form of photonovel, telling the story of the evolution of this genre both as language – a mixture of cinema, comics and photography – and as a testimony of social changes. This is a journey through different examples of cineromanzo, pre-production materials and magazine photographs, with fascinating behind-the-scenes shots by Federico Vender. The social and political uses of the photonovel are explored as communication tool, reaching up to creating a new project for a contemporary fotoromanzo by use of social networks. This will be a production inspired by a story for a photonovel written in 1961 by Cesare Zavattini and adapted through a series of episodes set in present day, created on Instagram, where they are to be released on a daily basis for a whole month. Screenplay by Matteo Casali, photographs by three young authors from the Emilia-Romagna region: Nicolò Maltoni, Valentina Cafarotti and Federico Landi.
Consultant: Silvana Turzio. In collaboration with the Reggio-Emilia Panizzi Library (Cesare Zavattini Archive), the Arnoldo Mondadori Foundation and the Office for Cultural Heritage of the city of Trento.
