Constructing imperial imaginations through educational cinema in Britain and Italy (1922–1937)

Abstract

During the period 1922–37, both the British and Italians launched institutes for educational cinematography and collaborated in the creation of the League of Nations’ International Educational Cinematographic Institute. Their leading newspapers dedicated entire sections to the advertising of educational campaigns through cinema. Comparing official documents and the print apparatus about the establishment and the activities of two institutes for educational cinema in Europe gives us a perception of how similarly and differently the British and Italians used their educational films to convey imperial sentiments and rhetoric into civilian life during fifteen years of colonial rule.