27/03/2003 - Italy’s world famous library of historical films is now online: latest technology gives access to 100,000 films, over 3,000 hours of footage, cine-journals & documentaries

Set up in 1924 to preserve filmed and photographic reports of every major Italian event right up to the present day, the Istituto Luce Archive is now available online on the “vertical portal” at www.luce.it. A simple click of the mouse gives access to a Italy's awesome film and photographic heritage of 100,000 films, over 3,000 hours’ worth of footage, cine-journals and documentaries. Thanks to the latest technological innovations, each document is now available in the following formats: modem, ADSL and broadband.
Ambitious it may be, but this is only the beginning of Istituto Luce’s plans for the future. As well as producing montage documentaries using repertory footage, Luce will also produce new films about contemporary Italian art and culture. “Our goal is that the Italian film industry rediscover a genre that is not only extraordinary, but also vitally important for informing our future generations about their past,” said Luce president Andrea Piersanti. Early projects have already been boarded by filmmakers of the calibre of Michelangelo Antonioni who will direct a documentary about Rome’s artistic heritage, and Folco Quilici whose project is about “the history of Italian marble” from the point of view of its cultural evolution and to be made using 3D digital techniques.

Piersanti also announced Luce was to set up Italy’s first History Channel, a new channel on the newly-created Sky News, the result of the merger between Tele+ and Stream.

(Translated from Italian)