Ricerc@Sapienza

This research project will aim at a reconsideration of the historical role of Italian State in the development of a comprehensive cultural policy through cinema, theatre and performing arts from the 30s to the 60s.

In order to do so, we will look at several documents coming from the most relevant institutions of that time, which are currently preserved at the Archivio Centrale dello Stato (Central State Archive) under the archival fund entitled "Ministero del Turismo e dello Spettacolo". This fund is still unreleased and not yet present in the inventory and, thanks to an agreement between the Archivio Centrale dello Stato and the Department of History, Anthropology, Religions, Arts, Performing Arts of Sapienza University of Rome, it will be available exclusively for this project.

Thanks to all these documents, we will underline the cultural, legal, social, economic and political consequences of Italian State activities in the area of cinema, theatre and performing arts in a crucial moment of Italian history, 1935-1965. In 1935 both the Ispettorato del Teatro and the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia were established. We chose 1965 as the closing year of our research because of the approval of the Corona Law, a rule that proposed new measures in favour of cultural and creative industries in Italy.

With all this in mind, we will re-read all the public interventions in cinema and theatre fields in a long period perspective, between continuities and gaps. These are, in fact, the years where the process of institutionalisation of the theatre and film industry happened: here, we will look at continuity and discontinuity of Fascist policies concerning the issue of policymaking in the creative industries, underlining all the public interventions in a comparative, systemic and interdisciplinary way - between cinema, theatre, and performing arts - and how they historically affected cultural and social dynamics in post-war Italy.