Archivio Aperto Research is the section of the festival inaugurated in 2025: a space dedicated to the exploration of academic and university research projects that focus on the enhancement of archives and on contemporary programming related to experimental cinema.
Curated by Giulia Simi
ATLas – Atlante delle Televisioni Locali
Principal investigator: Luca Barra (Dipartimento delle Arti, Università di Bologna)
ATLas – Atlante delle Televisioni Locali investigates and maps the often-overlooked stories of private local TV networks active in Italy between 1976 and 1990. The project explores the beginnings of legal over-the-air broadcasting, the consolidation of certain ventures (and the failure of others), the impact of local broadcasting on television aesthetics, programming, and audiences, up to the establishment of the national duopoly that drastically reduced the space for such operators.
The work focuses on five networks (Antenna 3, Sardegna 1, TeleRoma56, TeleSanterno, Videogruppo) within their respective regional areas of influence (Lombardy, Sardinia, Lazio, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont), reconstructing their complex histories and their role in the evolution of the Italian media system and the broader social and cultural fabric of the country. These broadcasters not only represented an initial counterbalance to the public service monopoly but also managed to build strong ties with their territories and local institutions.
Despite the direct and indirect impact of these channels in shaping Italy’s national media environment over more than four decades, the lack of access to archives and the limited knowledge of their trajectories have so far relegated them to the margins of academic research—further hindered by scarce sources and reliable information.
For this reason, the project has adopted a highly innovative methodology, combining the cultures of television production and distribution, film and media history, oral, social, and territorial history, as well as archival and infrastructure studies, in order to address local channels and their development from a systemic and multifocal perspective.
ATLas has examined the phenomenon by: 1. Accessing and mapping data, materials, and both formal and informal archives; 2. Conducting in-depth interviews with industry professionals, audiences, and stakeholders; 3. Reconstructing networks of relationships, influences, best practices, ideas, and programming.
The project has developed an online platform that gathers excerpts from channel programming, photographs, documents, and other resources, made available both through a navigable database and 15 thematic exhibition paths. Free access to the research results reflects the most advanced forms of cultural and social valorization of audiovisual heritage, laying the foundation for a permanent and updatable atlas of Italy’s local broadcasting system.
Vith: Luca Barra (Dipartimento delle Arti, Università di Bologna), Emiliano Rossi (Dipartimento delle Arti, Università di Bologna).
Università di Bologna: Luca Barra, Matteo Marinello, Emiliano Rossi;
Università degli Studi di Cagliari: Diego Cavallotti (Coordinator), Myriam Mereu;
Sapienza Università di Roma: Damiano Garofalo (Coordinator), Giulia Crisanti;
Università degli Studi di Torino: Riccardo Fassone (Coordinator), Paola Zeni.
PRIN 2020 (Prot. 2020NB4PWK)
Feminist Frames
Principal investigator: Rosa Barotsi (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia)
Feminist Frames is an international group of feminist filmmakers who make independent films in a creative dialogue with various artistic disciplines. The aim of Feminist Frames is to create a network for mutual support, co-creation, and the sharing of resources; and to be a space for feminist reflection on the work of filmmaking.
During the 65th edition of the Festival dei Popoli (Florence, Italy), Feminist Frames curated an itinerary of film screenings by women filmmakers on feminist and militant themes. In July 2025, FF held its first week-long Summer Residency, in Gombola (Modena, Italy), with special guest Claire Simon. In November 2025, FF will be hosted once again at the 66th Festival dei Popoli in Florence.
During these meetings, Feminist Frames have experimented with methodologies for co-creation and support across difference. Some of the questions we are currently trying to address are what it means to be a feminist filmmaker and a member of a transnational collectivity; and how to create one’s archive of feminist practice.
Feminist Frames are: Güliz Sağlam, Soheila Javaheri, Elli Vassalou | The Post Collective, Mirra Markhaeva | The Post Collective, Lisa Çalan, Giulia Cosentino, Mariangela Ciccarello, Tuğba Yaşar, Claudia Tosi, Oliwia Tado, Rosa Barotsi, Margherita Monti, Valeria Weerasinghe, Chiara Caterina, Nagehan Uskan, Ahu Öztürk, Elif Yiğit, Ro Caminal, Geli Mademli, Ruken Ergüneş Özdemir, Sophia Farantatou
Part of the group previously came together during the three-year project Purple Meridians (2020-2023), funded by Eurimages.
With: Rosa Barotsi (Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Culturali – Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia), Margherita Monti (OpenDDB, Cinevasioni.edu), Claudia Tosi (filmmaker).
Feminist Frames is supported by the research project IMFilm: Filmmaking Cultures Beyond the Industry (financed by ‘Unione Europea — NextGenerationEU), based at Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia.