It has arrived! New edited collection on Guglielmo Giannini exploring Film, Theatre, Journalism, and Politics (the State University of Milan enabling this publication, link below)

Committee:
Victoria Duckett, Deakin University
Raffaele Di Berti, Università Statale di Milano
Elena Mosconi, Università Pavia, Bergamo
Maria Gabriella Cambiaghi, Università Statale di Milano
Stefano Locatelli, Università La Sapienza, Rome
Irene Piazzoni, Università Statale di Milano 

• In June 2014, Sabina Ciuffini-Giannini's granddaughter and herself a famous media presence in Italy-granted me access to her family's holdings of Guglielmo Giannini's theatrical and political documents. 
• This was the first time Giannini's materials were released to someone outside the family
• Because I was unable (and reluctant) to move the materials from Ciuffini's apartment in Milan, I scanned most of them there, collecting over 10 000 digitized pages. 
• The scanning took over four years to complete. Yes, I learned patience. The archive I built is located here:

Who was Guglielmo Giannini?

Guglielmo Giannini (1891-1960) was a journalist, playwright, screenwriter, theater director, film director and Italian politician. He became known as a young playwright in the 1920s, establishing himself as an important figure in Italian theater in the 1930s and 1940s. He was famous for his contribution to the development of the noir, yellow and romantic comedy genres. 

1. Founder and director of the film magazine "Kines", Giannini was also an important figure in the Italian silent film industry, providing translations for the national public of titles and captions of foreign productions. In the 1930s and 1940s, some of his most famous plays were adapted for the big screen, such Anonima Fratelli Roylott, directed by Raffaello Matarazzo in 1936 (under the title of Anonima Roylott), as well as Skyscrapers (directed by Guglielmo Giannini same in 1943). 
2. With the creation of the weekly paper, "The ordinary man", Giannini founded and promoted "qualunquismo" as a political movement. 
3. Thanks to the 5.3% obtained in the elections of 1946, Giannini became a member of the Constituent Assembly, which had the task of drafting the constitution of the then newly born Italian Republic. 
4. Giannini remained visible in Italian media and society until his death in 1960

In 2017 we held a seminar at the State University of Milan, exploring Giannini's contributions to Theatre and Film. Sabina Ciuffini was a guest at this event. The papers we published (below, see PDF download link) were an outcome of this forum. 

We are now hosting the online conference, with links to video uploads in November, 2020. Please click the link below for access: