The film:

In 1924 Waldensian pastor Paolo Bosio commissioned Nino Martinengo - known especially for his performance as the comic character Bob - to make a film for disseminating the Waldensian Church’s history through the modern medium of cinema.

The surviving film, a tinted and toned 35mm diacetate, was locked up for years in a safety deposit box before making its way back to the archives of the Società di Studi Valdesi. The copy is an American version divided in two separate parts. The first is a historical reconstruction of the main events connected to the origins of the Waldensian movement and the ensuing centuries. The second part is live footage of the places and life of Italian Waldensian communities.

At the time the film was banned from screening by censors for defamation of the state’s religion, and it was clandestinely distributed abroad. The film’s style is a little stiff and antiquated, however, it is of incredible documentary interest as it was the first Waldensian propaganda film. 

The film restoration:

The preservation of Valdesi was funded by the Fondazione Culturale Centro Valdese thanks to the “8 per mille” (eight per thousand) of Italians annual income tax return, and in collaboration with the Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino from a tinted and toned 1.060 meters long 35 mm acetate positive with English intertitles. The film was scanned at a 2K resolution and it was digitally cleaned. The restoration’s outputs are a projection DCP and a 35 mm conservation negative.

The restoration work was carried out in 2015 at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna.

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