USI teams up with RSI and Cinémathèque suisse to optimise the archives of the Locarno Festival
Institute of Marketing and Communication Management
Recognised worldwide as a showcase and forum for cinema, since 1946, the Locarno Film Festival has provided a platform for free confrontation and exchange between major cultural, social and political currents. To preserve the invaluable legacy of the event’s history, which is so rich in ideas and personalities, four of Switzerland’s leading cultural institutions – the Festival itself, Cinémathèque Suisse, RSI and Università della Svizzera italiana – have agreed to a joint effort in a wide-ranging project to preserve and optimise the opportunities for the use of the archives, which will be transferred to the research and archive centre of Cinémathèque Suisse in Penthaz, canton of Vaud.
Phase one of the project will involve a campaign of cataloguing, identifying and digitising materials led by Cinémathèque Suisse at its research and archive centre in Penthaz. The partner institutions will contribute with their specific know-how and, in a later phase, will put forward specific projects for turning the resources into living materials that can open a conversation between past and present, nurturing liberal and democratic perspectives in the process.
Monica Duca Widmer, President of the University Council at USI, emphasised that “each of the four partners will bring its own special skills and know-how to this joint effort. USI brings the knowledge and methodologies of its departments, which will put forward research projects and promotional initiatives for the catalogued materials. The wealth of archival content will enable a broad range of extremely interesting research projects in a variety of ambits: from Humanities to digital technologies, from art history to Artificial Intelligence. I am convinced that this joint venture will soon bear fruit in ways that will allow this legacy to be exploited in the best way possible, both by the Festival’s many fans and society at large.”
More info on the Locarno Film Festival website.
