Fascist Indirect Propaganda in 1930s America: The Distribution and Exhibition of Italian Fiction Films

The essay investigates the ways representatives of the Fascist government deemed Italian fiction films effective vehicles of indirect propaganda in 1930s America. Indeed, in the 1930s and early 1940s, the Fascist regime supported the release of over 120 Italian fiction films in the US, along with se...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Italianist 2018-05, Vol.38 (2), p.156-173
Main Author: Vezzani, Roberto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
1930s Italian cinema
Fascist propaganda
Italian-American history
Italy-United States relations
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Summary:The essay investigates the ways representatives of the Fascist government deemed Italian fiction films effective vehicles of indirect propaganda in 1930s America. Indeed, in the 1930s and early 1940s, the Fascist regime supported the release of over 120 Italian fiction films in the US, along with several LUCE newsreels and documentaries. This extensive distribution continued after the Italian government's measures against the circulation of American films in Italy (1938) and stopped only in 1941, when Italy and the US became war enemies. Italian authorities believed that fiction films offered a favourable depiction of Fascist Italy without being explicitly ideological. As a result, they promoted the screening of such films in cities with large populations of Italian-Americans. The most noteworthy example of this propaganda effort was the flow of numerous Italian films at the Broadway Cine Roma Theatre in New York City, which will be studied as a key site of exhibition.
ISSN:0261-4340
1748-619X
DOI:10.1080/02614340.2018.1464304