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Cinema and Popular Preaching: the Italian Missionary Film and Fiamme

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Popular Italian Cinema

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on Italian missionary cinematographic production, an increasingly important area within the realm of Italian Catholic cinema studies. ‘Missionary film’ refers to a substantial group of movies made by missionaries as directors, screenwriters, dubbers1 and producers, in Italy and in other countries around the world during the last century. This phenomenon has been linked to the official use of images by the Catholic Church from its origins until now. The Church has for centuries used images in support of words for the purpose of preaching its message in a number of art forms and media: painting, sculpture, stained glass, photography, magic lanterns, lithographs, cinema and, more recently, the internet.

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Authors
  1. Maria Francesca Piredda
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. King’s College London, UK

    Louis Bayman

  2. University of Oregon, USA

    Sergio Rigoletto

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© 2013 Maria Francesca Piredda

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Piredda, M.F. (2013). Cinema and Popular Preaching: the Italian Missionary Film and Fiamme. In: Bayman, L., Rigoletto, S. (eds) Popular Italian Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137305657_13

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