Fondazione Home Movies

The Home Movies Foundation is the first archive in Italy entirely dedicated to the preservation, restoration and valorisation of Italy's private, family, amateur, industrial and experimental film heritage: a heritage of immeasurable historical, social and cultural value otherwise at risk. The Archive currently preserves in its premises more than 35,000 small-format films acquired through private donations from all over the country or wider-ranging collection projects in collaboration with municipalities, organisations, foundations and companies.

This reservoir of filmed memories is returned to the community with numerous cultural activities - often in a network with organisations and universities - and digital accessibility projects with a view to educating and promoting the culture of private and amateur cinema as a historical source, artistic product, cultural object and technological medium. The heritage safeguarded by Home Movies constitutes a vast and precious visual depository for the Italian history of the 20th century: from the transformation of the Italian landscape to social customs and changes, from customs and traditions to the everyday life of the last century. An immense, hidden treasure, made accessible to the entire community: pupils and students, scholars and scholars, school and university teachers, artists and filmmakers, citizens who simply want to immerse themselves in the images and landscapes of memory to discover or relive the universal feeling of ‘the way we were’.

In the archive, history and micro-history are interwoven into a mosaic of portraits, gazes and lives through the lens and involvement of filmmakers throughout the 20th century: our mission is to transmit this heritage to future generations so that it can be continually observed and interrogated with the eyes of the present.’