Curating the Moving Image (2011) | The P&P Blog

Final Observations

The politics of access. While researching copyright information for these films, it was hard to come to any conclusions for what concerns the prints: it looks like the rights for some of them are in the hands of American Majors. What is clear, on the other hand, is that only four out of nine films within the programme are out on DVD:

Sacco e Vanzetti, Indagine su un Cittadino al di Sopra di ogni Sospetto, La Classe Operaia Va in Paradiso and now Il Caso Moro (none of them with English subtitles!)

While the scarce visibility of these films in cinemas is already regrettable, they should at least be available on DVD, an essential means of access for the general public, and with English subtitles. It is only legitimate to ask why these films are not granted any visibility: is it for political reasons? In Italian society, over the past 25 years there have been several attempts to rehabilitate fascism: for instance, the seven-time prime minister Giulio Andreotti declared in the 1990s that the Bologna massacre was not the responsibility of fascist terrorists, even though the magistrates’ investigations had already proved so. In general, there is a purposeful and uneasy silence surrounding the ‘fascist’ side of the ‘years of the bullet’, while politicians are very quick to condemn the crimes and pity the victims of communist terrorism, as it should be: but why has fascist terrorism become a taboo?

The Years of Oblivion. The issue of silence leads me to my second point: very little has changed since ‘the years of the bullet’. Italian politics are today saturated with individuals that once belonged to fascist groups (one of them is the current mayor of Rome) and to the P2 lodge (Berlusconi, for example). The P2 was a secret Masonic lodge heavily financed by the USA to prevent the rise to power of the Italian communist party (PCI), and its members were strategically placed in every position of power: many were generals of the army, the secret services or the police. These men have achieved, secretly and illegally, great economic and political power over the years, and they are not going to give it up. While the P2 lodge has dissolved, its affiliates are politicians or established businessmen today. Italy is in the grip of the mafias as it has always been, but they are more powerful now, since they have invested enormous capitals in the legal economy, especially of Northern Italy; some of the sinister characters involved in the (non-)rescue of Aldo Moro, such as Andreotti (who is now 92) are still senators or influential opinion-leaders. The history of the ‘years of the bullet’ is not spoken about, is not studied in schools, is not examined critically: many even dismiss the ‘strategy of tension’ as an invention of the communist party, while others (in the press, politics, television) purposely cover-up, confuse, and lie to the public. I would define our time ‘the years of oblivion’, because the Italian people are being forced into a black hole of historical amnesia: Berlusconi’s fierce attack on public education, his ideological interventions on history books for schoolchildren, and the heavy cutbacks on culture are part of a wider political strategy to dumb us all down. The eternal ‘the State is broke’ lie becomes an insult as private schools and universities, party newspapers and private health clinics continue to receive consistent funds (300 million euros this year), while Italian public schools and renowned cultural symbols fall to pieces (Pompeii for example). A people that remembers facts and faces and looks back to its recent history with critical eyes – an educated, self-confident people – would endanger the current systems of political and economic corruption so deeply embedded in our history and society. Such a people would rebel to this sad state of things.

My exhibition constitutes an attempt to reflect on the guilty silence that surrounds these films, and therefore our recent history, and the current political situation, that thrives on this same silence and misinformation.

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