Dimensione Super8

Shortly after the mid-1960s the "arcadia" of amateur filmmakers was disrupted by the arrival of underground cinema, which burst onto the festival distribution circuits, producing a generational break that redefined the figure of the amateur filmmaker and the new practices of the small gauge film formats. The crucial moment to take stock of amateur productions is around the mid-1970s, with Dimensione Super8, an important review that will produce a complete mapping of Italian production, also indicating possible future developments in the production and enjoyment of reduced format films. Presenting experimental and artists' cinema, film club productions and militant cinema, up to school experiences and family films, Dimensione Super8 remains a precious filter to reread an era. By enriching this panorama with significant examples of authors and films, Paolo Simoni points out how composite this historical picture is, highlighting the different directions taken and the contradictions, which characterise an era of enthusiasm, but also of disillusionment, with respect to the opportunities offered by the small gauge film formats.