Promoted by: Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna. With the support of: Regione Emilia-Romagna. In association with: Ferrovie dello Stato, Grandi Stazioni, Cento Stazioni, RFI
Open: everyday from 10 am to 6 pm. Wednesday and Friday from 10 am to 10.30 pm. Closed August 15
Free admission

Our reasoning begins with an observation of fact: this region, today called Emilia-Romagna, located in the neck of the boot and the historical junction between Northern and Central Southern Italy, is where many of the best Italian filmmakers were born and trained.

Renzo Renzi, Una terra di cineasti (1990)

Why are some of the greatest Italian filmmakers from Emilia-Romagna? Why have many of Italian film’s most innovative moments happened here in this region?
In honor of Expo 2015, the Cineteca di Bologna, in collaboration with Regione Emilia-Romagna, has organized an exhibition illustrating the region’s extraordinary cinematic fertility.
The historic space of Sala d’Ercole at Palazzo d’Accursio is the inspiration for the exhibition’s design into two itineraries. On the outside, an open ended conversation with films, documents and testimonies giving visitors a chance to reread the magnificent history of Italian film from the perspective of Emilia-Romagna, spotlighting the elective affinities that have bound cinema and our region together since the beginning. Visitors will also be able to experience for the first time or re-experience films by directors like Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Valerio Zurlini, Florestano Vancini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Marco Bellocchio, Liliana Cavani, Pupi Avati and Giorgio Diritti.
The internal section instead is a more evocative exploration of the reasons behind this extraordinary blossoming. Taking our cue from the ideas contained in the Renzo Renzi essay that gives our exhibition its name, a kaleidoscope of references to films, texts and pictures focuses on the unique cultural, geographic and social background that has made Emilia-Romagna such fertile terrain for filmmaking.
The exhibition conceptually extends itself into the train stations of ten cities and towns scattered across the territory. The region’s train stations have often been the real or imagined sets of memorable films: from Estate violenta (Bologna) to La ragazza con la valigia (Parma), from I vitelloni (Rimini) to Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini (Ferrara). Through explorations of the most significant films shot in various cities, the keenest of travelers will discover the extraordinary history of film in Emilia-Romagna.