LA NOTTE DEGLI ARCHIVI Screening on film of "Processo Politico"

RESTORING ABSENCE. THE REMOVED IMAGES OF “PROCESSO POLITICO”

Friday, June 5, 2026, 9:00 PM

An exclusive film screening of Processo politico, which, on the occasion of the Notte degli Archivi, transforms the historic studio of the artist Arnaldo Pomodoro into a cinema space.

Produced in 1971 by the collective behind the magazine “Che fare” and directed by Francesco Leonetti and Arnaldo Pomodoro, the film examines the socio-political context of the years 1969–1970 in Italy, denouncing the death of the anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli and recounting the defamation trial brought by Commissioner Luigi Calabresi against the weekly magazine “Lotta Continua”, which had accused him of the murder. By combining genres and different temporal perspectives, documentary and fiction, the film stands as a significant example of that “militant cinema” which, between the 1960s and 1970s, became an important tool of counter-information. Presented at the International Exhibition of New Cinema in Pesaro in 1971, Processo politico was judged excessively experimental and provoked harsh reactions from both audiences and critics. After being screened only a few times in the following months, the film eventually disappeared from circulation. In 1995, Leonetti and Carla Cerati rediscovered a working print and reconstructed a shortened version of the film.

Thanks to the restoration and digitization project carried out in 2024 by the Home Movies Foundation and promoted by the heirs of Francesco Leonetti together with the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation, after more than fifty years Processo politico returns to its original form, in the version considered definitive by the authors in 1971.

The film screening of the newly restored 16mm print of the film will be introduced by the project coordinators through historical photographs and other archival documents documenting its production and its reception by audiences and critics.

Speakers:

• Federico Giani – Curatore, Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro
• Ilaria Sgaravatto – Archivista, Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro
• Jennifer Malvezzi – Curatrice del progetto “Art & Experimental film”, Fondazione Home Movies
• Mirco Santi – Fondazione Home Movies, Responsabile laboratorio di restauro e digitalizzazione