Il Cinema Ritrovato on Tour is coming to the UNH campus to screen restored and rare films from Italy, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the US, starting Monday, March 27 through Friday, March 31.

Each film will be screened in the Memorial Union Building (MUB) Theater 2. Throughout the week, there will be three public lectures, held in Conant Hall, room 113. Allison Cooper of Bowdoin College, Claudia Sbuttoni of UNH and Edward Bowen of the University of Kansas are all scheduled to give public lectures regarding elements and ideas that are included in some of the films.

A full schedule and lecture titles for the week can be found here.

All film showings are free for the UNH community and the public, and will be played in their original language, with English subtitles. 

Claudia Sbuttoni, a professor in the Italian Studies department at UNH, was invited to give a lecture about Italian film under facism this coming Wednesday. Sbuttoni’s  area of expertise is Contemporary Italy and Facism.  

“I think not a lot of students know that Italy used to be a fascist dictatorship and a lot of them are interested in the role that film and cinema had to play in the regime,” said Sbuttoni. 

This will be her first time attending Il Cinema Ritrovato on Tour at UNH, and her first time giving a talk since her hire at UNH. Sbuttoni has attended the original film event in Bologna, Italy once before. 

“It’s a really magical experience,” said Sbuttoni about her experience at Il Cinema Ritrovato in Italy. “You’re all there in the piazza, it’s a very special environment and event.” The festival coming to UNH is one of the things she was most excited about when she was hired in September. 

Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival has been showing restored and rare films since 1986, according to the National Gallery of Art website. The film festival started in Bologna, Italy and occurs each year in Piazza Maggiore. 

More than 400 films were shown at the event in 2022, according to the Il Cinema Ritrovato website. Il Cinema Ritrovato on Tour brings some of these films on tour outside of Italy. 

Sbuttoni said “Our students don’t really have the opportunity to see these films and so I think it’s really important that this festival gives them access.”   

Rebekah Davis, a second year currently taking Italian at UNH, said she has not seen any of the films that are scheduled to play this week. 

“I am looking forward to the festival,” said Davis. “I think it is a really unique and interesting opportunity to be able to see these films in their original language and I can’t wait to go and see some of them.” 

One of Sbuttoni’s favorite films, “Una Giornata Particolare,” “A Special Day,” in English, is screening on Thursday, March 30.