Fondazione Home Movies

Founded in 2002 in Bologna, Fondazione Home Movies is the first archive in Italy entirely dedicated to the preservation, restoration and enhancement of Italy's private, family, amateur, industrial and experimental film heritage, one of immeasurable historical, social and cultural value that would otherwise be 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 the aim of 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, 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’.

The team of Fondazione Home Movies declares that ‘the victory of the call for participants represents for us an important support to the diffusion and dissemination of the work of Home Movies and of the preserved heritage, with the aim of allowing the archive to go out more and more from its rooms and to make its contents accessible through digital tools. History and micro-history are woven into a mosaic of portraits, glances and lives through the lens and involvement of filmmakers throughout the 20th century: our mission is to share this heritage to future generations so that it can be continually observed and interrogated with the eyes of the present.’