The Experimental Film in Fascist Italy, or: What is a Cineguf Film?

This dossier’s short selection of essays is meant to shed light on cinema sperimentale, a peculiar phenomenon that developed during Italy’s fascist period. The term translates literally to “experimental cinema” and was applied to all amateur cinema practice during the period in which it became institutionalized, from approximately 1934 to 1943. The amateur film movement originated in the loose liberal organizations usually—but not always —called Cine-clubs, from the French model, when in 1926, a literary circle in Milan (Convegno) inaugurated film sessions, hosting projections of silent film, avant-garde, or amateur films. From 1926 to 1933, a few groups began organizing film activities and producing short films, too. But in 1934, liberal film clubs and associations were pressured into joining with existing university organizations for fascist students called the Gruppi universitari fascisti (University Fascist Groups) or Guf for short. Some Guf actually existed beginning in 1921, a full year before the fascist ascent to power with the March on Rome, but became much more widespread afterwards. Under this umbrella organization, young and aspiring filmmakers could continue developing their amateur practices within these formal groupings, which became officially referred to as the Guf’s Cinema Sections, or Cineguf.