«Putting Italy back on the map». Diasporic Cinema Audiences in Post-war Sydney

Autori

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54103/2532-2486/18698

Parole chiave:

Italian cinema audiences, Italian cinema, Migration, Post-war Sydney

Abstract

In April 1961, the Sydney screening of Federico Fellini’s latest film La dolce vita (1960) broke all box office records, and the associated scandals attracted the attention of Sydney cinemagoers and the migrant and local press. Over two hundred thousand Italians had migrated to Australia by this time, creating a local demand for Italian film in theatres and within social and religious groups. This article examines the central role that film plays within the social and cultural lives of Italian migrant audiences and draws on a series of oral history interviews supplemented with film reviews from Italian and local newspapers and cinema industry journals. Cinema played an important role, not only in cultivating and maintaining cultural and national identity, but in establishing a new sense of italianità in 1960s Sydney.

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Pubblicato

2022-12-31

Fascicolo

Sezione

Monografico / Special Issue