Film retrospective of Cecilia Mangini  

This program focuses on Cecilia Mangini’s work on the Italian people outside the power structure: women, children, and the destitute youth who dream of a better future. Mangini’s empathetic and bold films question the gender roles, the existence of freedom of choice, and the social role models. Being Women is perhaps the best known of Mangini’s films, whereas Pier Paolo Pasolini, a close friend of her’s, wrote the script for The Chant of Tiber’s Branches.

Tommaso

Director: Cecilia Mangini

Screenplay: Cecilia Mangini

Cinematography: Giuseppe Pinori

Editing: Rosa Sala

Music: Egisto Macchi

Italy, 1965, 11 min. 

The industrial city of Brindisi is the setting for this film, the tension between the bright promises of the industrial world and the not-so-bright reality of a young worker, in one of Mangini's most emblematic works.

Essere Donne

Being Woman

Director: Cecilia Mangini

Screenplay: Felice Chilanti

Cinematography: Luciano Graffigna

Editing: Marco Menenti

Music: Egisto Macchi

Italy, 1965, 29 min.

An emblematic work that anticipates the feminist movement, in the simple but radical gesture of contrast between the advertising images of women and real women: workers, mothers, who struggle to make ends meet. The film gives voice to working-class women, in a pre-feminist experimental film that shows the unavoidable contribution made by women to politics and social justice.

La Canta delle Marane

The Chant of Tiber’s Branches

Director: Cecilia Mangini

Screenplay: Pier Paolo Pasolini

Cinematography: Giuseppe De Mitri

Editing: Renato May

Music: Egisto Macchi

Italy, 1961, 11 min. 

A sensual and vibrant vision without euphemisms about the children of the Roman suburbs and their summer hobby, swimming in the ponds, with commentary by Pier Paolo Pasolini.

La Briglia sul Collo

The Bridle on the Neck

Director: Cecilia Mangini

Cinematography: Eugenio Bentivoglio

Editing: Giuseppe Giacobio

Music: Egisto Macchi

Italy, 1974, 13 min. 

We enter the universe of Fabio Spada, a child from the Roman suburb of San Basilio: Fabio has been defined by the school as a misfit. His father, his mother, the director and the psychologist of the public school of the "borgata romana" (and even himself) tell us about him.

Selected Filmography

Ignotti alla cità / The City’s Unknown, 1958

Firenze di Pratolini / Florence According to Pratolini, 1959

Stendali: suonano ancora / Stendali: Still They Toll, 1960

Maria e i giorni / Maria’s Days, 1960

 Divino amore / Divine Love, 1960

La passione del grano / The Wheat Passion, 1960

La canta delle marane / The Chant of Tiber’s Branches, 1961

All’armi siam fascisti! / To Arms, We Are Fascists!, 1962

O Trieste del mio cuore / O Trieste of My Heart, 1964

Essere donne / Being Women, 1965

Tommaso / Tommaso, 1965

Brindisi’65 / Brindisi’65, 1965

Felice Natale / Happy Christmas, 1965

La scelta / The Decision, 1967

La briglia sul collo / The Bridle on the Neck, 1972

In viaggio con Cecilia / My Travels with Cecilia, 2013 (with Mariangela Barbanente)

Due scatole dimenticante / Two Forgotten Boxes, 2020 (with Paolo Pisanelli)

Il mondo a scatti / The World in Shots, 2021 (with Paolo Pisanelli)