Italian Community Cinemas
and Their Post-pandemic Role
in Fragile Territories

Balzarotti R. M., Celata F., Fabris L. M. F.
Italian Community Cinemas and Their Post-pandemic Role in Fragile Territories
Articolo pubblicato in | This article is published in:
Planum. The Journal of Urbanism | Planum Magazine no. 43, vol. II/2021
www.planum.net | ISSN 1723-0993

The essay provides a reflection and proposal, based on previous research, about the revitalisation of the Italian Catholic Church's Community Cinemas network, often located in fragile territories: marginal, rural, suburban areas and significant metropolitan areas outskirts. Community Cinemas are not just merely a projection room, but rather small and diffused cultural epicentres, deeply rooted in the Italian culture and resilient to the crisis of movie theatres and cultural services exacerbated by the pandemic. Considering their value and their distribution in the Italian territory, the Community Cinema model seems to be fitting with the post-COVID-19 scenario and policy agenda: in the urban areas it can offer a community and recreational space closer to where inhabitants live, in line with recent proposals for a 15-minutes city. In the Italian inner areas, it can contribute to repopulation policies based not only on the provision of basic services, but of a new social and cultural infrastructure.

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Riccardo Maria Balzarotti
Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani
riccardomaria.balzarotti@polimi.it

Filippo Celata
Università di Roma La Sapienza, Dipartimento di Metodi e Modelli per l'Economia, il Territorio e la Finanza
filippo.celata@uniroma1.it

Luca Maria Francesco Fabris
Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani
lucamariafrancesco.fabris@polimi.it

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