The Discovery of the “Third World”: The Programming Policies of the Italian Antifestivals (1960-1976)

Abstract

This paper explores the micro-histories, organization developments and programming policies of the Italian antifestivals between 1960 and 1976. It analyses how and why the antifestivals were created as a deliberate rupture with the conventional festival model, in the attempt to emancipate the appreciation of films from commercial and diplomatic interests, and to provide visibility to the then-emerging cinematic waves: Underground Films, Yugoslav Black Wave, and Third World Cinema. In particular, this exploration hinges on the ways these festivals heralded the discovery of Third-Worldist Latin American cinema as both an aesthetically innovative cinematic wave and a political act of intervention and solidarity.