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This study considers Italian filmmaking during the Fascist era and offers an original and revealing approach to the interwar years. Steven Ricci directly confronts a long-standing dilemma faced by cultural historians: while made during a period of totalitarian government, these films are neither propagandistic nor openly \"Fascist.\" Instead, the Italian Fascist regime attempted to build ideological consensus by erasing markers of class and regional difference and by circulating terms for an imaginary national identity. Cinema and Fascism investigates the complex relationship between the totalitarian regime and Italian cinema. It looks at the films themselves, the industry, and the role of cinema in daily life, and offers new insights into this important but neglected period in cinema history.

An exploration of how film has made legible the Italian long ’68 as a moment of crisis and transitionTraditionally, the definition of political cinema assumes a relationship between cinema and politics. In contrast to this view, author Mauro Resmini sees this relationship as an impasse. To illustrate this theory, Resmini turns to Italian cinema to explore how films have reinvented the link between popular art and radical politics in Italy from 1968 to the early 1980s, a period of intense political and cultural struggles also known as the long ’68.Italian Political Cinema conjures a multifaceted, complex portrayal of Italian society. Centered on emblematic figures in Italian cinema, it maps the currents of antagonism and repression that defined this period in the country’s history. Resmini explores how film imagined the possibilities, obstacles, and pitfalls that characterized the Italian long ’68 as a moment of crisis and transition. From workerism to autonomist Marxism to feminism, this book further expands the debate on political cinema with a critical interpretation of influential texts, some of which are currently only available in Italian.A comprehensive and novel redefinition of political film, Italian Political Cinema introduces its audience to lesser-known directors alongside greats such as Pasolini, Bertolucci, Antonioni, and Bellocchio. Resmini offers access to untranslated work in Italian philosophy, political theory, and film theory, and forcefully advocates for the continued artistic and political relevance of these films in our time.

Relations between Italy and other countries – such as China – are often imagined within a binary frame that essentialises national and ethnic communities and fails to recognise the complex transcultural ramifications of an increasingly globalising world. This is particularly problematic when studying those social and cultural spaces that Ilaria Vanni (2016) has described as transcultural edges. These are marginal spaces of transition and encounters between different cultures and societies, which have the potential to create new, innovative and productive ecosystems. We argue that one such space is Prato, an industrial town near Florence, well known for its textile district, and host to one of the largest Chinese communities in Europe. Significant academic attention has been devoted to the Chinese community in Prato, including studies of its social and economic impact on the host local community and the textile industry. Most of these studies tend to isolate the Chinese community from the ethnic complexity of the area, within a binary frame that fails to acknowledge the large presence of other migrant groups and the reciprocal permeability and transculturation between the Chinese community, the Italian community, and other ethnic groups. As part of a larger project, a group of scholars is currently digitally remapping Prato, to include quantitative and qualitative geolocalised information collected through a multidisciplinary method that includes ethnography, media analysis, translation studies, transcultural studies, and digital participatory action research. Through a brief description of the aims and characteristics of this research project, the paper will discuss the importance of rethinking the relationship between Italy and China, and between Italians and Chinese, within a more complex and nuanced transcultural frame. I rapporti dell'Italia con altre nazioni, compresi i rapporti fra Italia e Cina, sono spesso immaginati all'interno di una costruzione binaria che essenzializza la natura delle comunità nazionali e etniche e non rende conto delle complesse ramificazioni transculturali di un mondo sempre più globalizzato. Questo è particolarmente problematico quando si studiano quegli spazi sociali e culturali che Ilaria Vanni (2016) ha descritto come ‘transcultural edges’. Questi sono spazi di transizione e incontro fra culture e società diverse; spazi che hanno la potenzialità di creare ecosistemi nuovi, innovativi e produttivi. In questo articolo sosteniamo che uno di questi spazi è Prato, una città industriale vicino Firenze, che è conosciuta per il suo distretto tessile, e in cui vive una delle più grandi comunità cinesi d'Europa. Molti studi accademici si sono concentrati sulla comunità cinese di Prato, compresi molti studi sull'impatto sociale ed economico sulla comunità locale e il suo distretto tessile. La maggior parte di questi studi tende ad isolare la comunità cinese dalla complessità etnica di Prato, all'interno di una cornice binaria che non riconosce la presenza significativa di altri gruppi di migranti, e la reciproca influenza transculturale fra la comunità cinese, quella italiana e gli altri gruppi etnici. Come parte di un progetto più ampio, un gruppo di studiosi intende mappare digitalmente Prato, per includere informazioni quantitative e qualitative geolocalizzate, che vengono raccolte attraverso un metodo interdisciplinare comprendente l'etnografia, l'analisi dei media, gli studi sulla traduzione, gli studi transculturali, e la ricerca digitale partecipativa. Attraverso una breve descrizione degli obiettivi e delle caratteristiche del progetto, l'articolo sostiene l'importanza di ripensare le relazioni fra Italia e Cina, e fra gli italiani e i cinesi, all'interno di un quadro transculturale più complesso e articolato.