Between 1968 and 1977, there wasn’t just an increase in the number of campaigns conducted by the New Left on the streets of Italy, new forms of cinematic mass communication also sprung up alongside them. Labor disputes and police violence found their way into the films of the New Left, with feminist groups drawing attention to female living realities and themes such as abortion or machismo. The anti-psychiatry movement had a greater effect in Italy than in other countries, which ultimately brought about the abolition of closed psychiatric clinics. The films of the Italian New Left were a laboratory of cinematic forms. Prints from the Arsenal archive make up the bulk of the program put together by Cecilia Valenti and Fabian Tietke, which is supplemented with additional works by Aamod (Archivio audiovisivo del movimento operaio e democratico) and Cineteca Nazionale, and placed in a broader context by various guests and introductions.
