Daily life of a Bolognese family
The life imprinted on film of surveyor Angelo Selleri, his wife Adele Messieri, a teacher, and their three children. In the films of the Selleri family, almost exclusively 8mm films made by Angelo, a vivid portrait emerges of middle-class people observing and documenting the world to which they belong. In addition to footage of family life in Bologna and in some seaside and mountain resorts, some films focusing on everyday rituals, places and work activities are of particular interest. Among others: fishing in the Venetian lagoon, the Bologna airport in 1962, the rice fields of Campotto d’Argenta with the rice-workers at work, in the early 1960s, a women’s scout meeting in Pontecchio Marconi, near Bologna, the port of Ravenna and the work of the fishermen on their boats, glimpses of the SAROM refinery (Società Anonima Raffinazione Oli Minerali), the total eclipse of the sun in 1961 near the Bologna Astronomical Observatory, the astronomical station in Loiano, the last tram ride in Bologna on 3 November 1963, the construction of the Brisighella aqueduct, whose director of works was Selleri himself, and a day at the Montessori Carducci nursery school in Bologna in 1966.
The user can explore the filmic background through a wide selection of sequences shot by Selleri. Digitised film materials can be viewed in chronological order or via the menu. Short texts, inserted in titles, captions or superimposed on images, introduce, contextualise and give precise indications about people, places and situations. The information was gathered through careful research, documentation and cataloguing. Le informazioni sono state raccolte attraverso un’attenta ricerca, documentazione e catalogazione.
(texts edited by Karianne Fiorini)
Main characters
Angelo Selleri was born in Bologna on September 24th 1926. He grew up in a traditional and wealthy family of merchants, he attended the National High School for Commerce and Surveyors Crescenti-Pacinotti of Bologna. He graduated at 19 years old, at the end of World War II, and worked for a while in a construction company. After his two-year military service he opened a small construction business specialized in roads, bridges and aqueducts.
During the post-war years he collaborates a lot with the scouts, but he had been a passionate amateur photographer since his youth, and through photography he is able to depict many different aspects of working life, some of them casual. Besides of photography, he developed a passion about cinema, and thus he would film different events, places, professions and traditions and whatever deserved to be filmed and preserved for the future according to him. He married Adele Messieri on October 18th 1959, and she will give him three children: Maria (Bologna, September 21st 1960), Pietro (Bologna, October 8th 1961) and Carlo (Bologna, January 6th 1966). In the mid 60s he decides to quit working as a surveyor to work as a farmer, after having received some land in San Lazzaro di Savena (Bologna) from his parents. Angelo Selleri died on August 12th 2005.
The Collection
The Angelo Selleri collection was donated by his wife, Adele Messieri, to the National Home Movies Archive on June 5th 2008. The films were kept until then in the Selleri’s home and were filmed in 9,5 and 8mm. After purchasing the material, the films were restored and digitalized. The films were organized with the help of Adele Messieri, trough the information given by her during several meetings between 2008 and 2009.
The collection consists in 38 9,5 mm and 8 mm rolls of different length filmed between 1949 and 1979, for a total length of 7 hours. The films are most of all home movies and are focused in the lives of the amateur director, his wife Adele Messieri and their three children Maria (1960), Pietro (1961) and Carlo (1966). The first roll was filmed on 1949 in 9,5 mm Pathè Baby by an unknown cameraman and shows a lunch at the workplace of Albino Messieri, father of Adele Messieri, in which a very young Adele appears for a few seconds. The other movies were filmed from 1959 on, during the marriage of Adele Messieri and Angelo Selleri, celebrated in the Rastellino church, in Castelfranco Emilia, on October 18th 1959. It was filmed in black and white and color by two different cameramen, both friends of the marrying couple.
The life on film of the land surveyor Angelo Selleri and his wife, Adele Messiere, a teacher, and their three children. In the Selleri family’s films, almost exclusively filmed by Angelo in 8mm, comes up a vivid portrait of the petty bourgeoisie observing and documenting their lifestyle.
Beside the scenes of family life in Bologna and some other beach and mountain villages, other scenes focused in daily life and workplaces are specially interesting, such as: fishing in the venetian “laguna”, the Bologna airport in 1962, the rice fields and peasants of Campotto d’Argenta in the early 60s, a girl-scouts meeting in Pontecchio Marconi, in the bolognese hills, in the early 60s, the port of Ravenna and fishermen working in their boats, some takes of the SAROM (Società Anonima Raffinazione Oli Minerali) refinery, the 1961 total eclipse taken from the Bologna Astronomical Observatory, the Loiano astronomic station, the last time a tramway went across Bologna, on November 3rd 1963, the construction of the Brisighella aqueduct, supervised by Selleri himself, and a day at the montessorian kindergarden Carducci (Bologna) in 1966.