Thirty women who imagined, directed, performed, produced, and transformed the Seventh Art, leaving a deep and lasting mark, too often forgotten by the official archives. In an era when the cinematographic language was still shaping, the female presence was widespread and decisive. The pioneers of Italian and international cinema were not simple extras in the history of this budding industry, but authentic protagonists, capable of occupying creative and entrepreneurial roles with determination and courage.

Elvira Notari, the first Italian female director, is only the starting point of a story that winds through the lives and works of extraordinary figures such as Giulia Cassini Rizzotto, Adriana Costamagna, Daisy Sylvan, Bianca Guidetti Conti, and many others, whose contributions have long been ignored or forgotten.

The exhibition takes us on a journey in 30 stages, each dedicated to a pioneer. By recovering unpublished footage, rediscovered films, period magazines, archive documents, screenplays, photographs, and sketches, it provides us with a new perspective on the dawn of cinema, during which women played an active role in every phase of the production process.

These professionals covered the most diverse roles, moving with ease from writing to directing, from editing to production, from costume design to distribution, not only in the set’s spotlight but also in the core mechanisms of film creation. Some founded production companies – such as Bertini Film or Dora Film – and others directed groundbreaking movies that tackled controversial themes in complete contrast with the social conventions of the time. Many distinguished themselves for their ability to suggest new languages ​​and narrative models, building free, nonconformist, and surprisingly modern female archetypes.

The exhibition offers a new look at the history of cinema, which was never just a story of men. In a journey that crosses the pioneering productions of silent cinema up to the early 1940s, this choral story, like a recomposed puzzle, aims at restoring the central and fundamental role of an entire generation of female filmmakers.

“When cinema was taking its first steps,” asserted Undersecretary of Culture Lucia Borgonzoni, “women were there to mark its path with their vision, talent, and determination. Yet, the story of those years has hardly any trace of them as handed down to the present day. With this exhibition, we want to give a voice back to the protagonists of the early days of the Seventh Art. The great research work that took place preceding the exhibition, leafing through documents of the time, brought extraordinary stories to light, returning a relatively unknown chapter of our past to collective memory – an all-female chapter.”

“The collection of images, footage, and films from the Historical Archives and the Film Archives that collaborated, alongside the Luce Archive,” noted Chiara Sbarigia, President of Cinecittà, “gives back not only the beauty of the great actresses of early Italian cinema, but above all the silent and invisible work of the many women who contributed to the birth of a filmic language that is still powerfully creative and evocative today, and which deserves to be brought to the surface and consigned to our collective memory”.

Enriched by a catalogue published by Mondadori Electa, the project is not only a historiographical operation: it is a cultural and symbolic gesture that fills a void in our collective memory and gives back space, voice, and names to extraordinary personalities who reinvented their time and their role in the world through the moving image. The catalogue itself is therefore an integral part of this rewriting process, also thanks to the presence of a precious unpublished work by Margaret Mazzantini, accompanied by contributions from prestigious names in Italian journalism, which broaden and deepen the view of the protagonists of the exhibition, offering original readings and contemporary reflections.

InVisibili is thus a powerful and necessary tribute to the visionary strength of women who chose cinema as a tool to pave their way to assertion, freedom, and transformation, and who today are finally visible again.

The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin, and the Cineteca di Bologna, whose contribution has made this important work of rediscovery and valorization possible.

EXHIBITION INFORMATION “inVisibili. The Pioneers of Cinema”

Istituto Centrale per la Grafica
Via della Stamperia, 6 – Roma
From May 16 to September 28, 2025
Open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm