An unseen Pisa emerges from footage collected through the MOSAICO PISA project - The City (Never Seen) on Film.
On Friday, May 22 at 8:30 p.m., a special evening of storytelling, cinema, and live musical accompaniment will take place at the Cinema Arsenale. The event is coordinated by Lorenzo Garzella and draws on a collection of Super 8 reels and private films gathered through the Acquario della Memoria initiative, with the support of the Fondazione Pisa and the Municipality of Pisa, in collaboration with the University of Pisa, 8mmezzo, and Arsenale.
Spanning the 1940s to the 1970s, amateur footage and family films portray a surprising city - vibrant, ironic, and rich in memory: bathers in the Arno as if at the seaside in Marina, the trammino and the navicellai, rebellious and high-spirited students, Vespa acrobatics at the Cittadella, the Giro d’Italia passing by the Bagni di Nerone in 1953, snowball fights among Capuchin friars in 1965, and even the very first bricks of the Cineclub Arsenale.
8:30 p.m., free admission.
Live musical accompaniment:
Davide Barbafiera (electronic keyboards)
Linda Palazzolo (percussion and vocals)
Paolo Durante (keyboards)
Special guest appearance by Francesco Bottai on acoustic guitar
Speakers:
Lorenzo Garzella
Chiara Tognolotti, Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Pisa
The evening will unfold in three main segments:
- The CEP – the Pisan Electronic Calculator
Previously unseen footage of the first large-scale computer built in Italy by the University of Pisa and Olivetti. Exceptionally rare images from 1960–61, culminating in the historic inauguration attended by President Giovanni Gronchi. Introduction by Professor Fabio Gadducci. - Leopoldo Nardi, Pisan amateur filmmaker
A journey through family epics, social customs, and reportage, drawn from Nardi’s remarkable private reels: the retone at Boccadarno, children at the Giardino Scotto, the Giro d’Italia, and the Coppa Dolomiti. Presented by Michele Lischi and Sandra Lischi. - San Giusto – San Marco: neighbourhood memory
Post-war Super 8 films portray a district of makeshift housing, workshops, convents, and close-knit communities. Through improvised games, daring races, and residents’ stories, an authentic and popular Pisa comes vividly back to life.
A mosaic of rare and striking images, poised between memory and modernity.
Further information: https://www.acquariodellamemoria.it/la-citta-mai-vista.../
