Films show diverse picture of Italy

One of the many images from the Luce Archives, which provides the material for the film collection 9x10 Novanta.

In 2014 the Istituto Luce - which houses Italy's Luce Archives - turned 90.

To celebrate this milestone the Istituto invited nine rising stars of Italian filmmaking to each produce a 10-minute film from footage in the archives.

The result was 9x10 Novanta, which will show at the Whanganui Film Society on August 15.

The films show a diverse picture of Italy: from wars to triumphs, history to poetry, ordinary people to famous figures - and much more.

Istituto Luce Cinecitta described it as "a diverse picture, a combinatorial game of intersecting moves, contrasts and analogies, with one common thread: those images from the Archives".

"Or possibly something else as well: there's much talk of, and many glimpses of, something you could call Italy. Not the Italy in history books, but Italy as it is (or isn't) today, seen through sequences often filmed when our nine directors weren't even born. Present-day Italy through images from its past."

9x10 Novanta will screen at the Davis Theatre at 7pm on August 15. You must be a member of Whanganui Film Society to attend this screening. For more information, including membership details, see www.whanganuifilmsociety.org.nz.