IT 1965 | Director: Cecilia Mangini | Script: Felice Chilanti | Camera: Luciano Graffigna | Editor: Marco Menenti | Music: Egisto Macchi | Production: Unitelefilm | Colour & b/w | DCP | 29 min | italian OV with english SUB | Fondazione Archivio Audiovisivo del Movimento Operaio e Democratico (AAMOD)

Mangini, in her work as well as her relationships, chose the side of the marginalised, whether they’d been placed there because of who they were or what they believed or because of the role they had been forced to occupy. She was interested in the position of women on the margins, particularly elderly and working-class women; through them she shows us the struggles of a country moving from a traditional society to a modern, individualist nation. Essere donne (1965), or Being Women, the film for which Magnini is perhaps best known, illustrates this well. In it, Mangini takes us through the difficult lives of women who worked in Italian factories and tobacco plants from Milan to Apulia during the years that were labelled latterly il boom economico: the “economic miracle”. She shows us families who have had to emigrate north from Southern Italy to find work. The film offers a reflection on the thousands who moved to Milan to work in chemical production, heavy machinery, or construction and to Turin to work for the likes of Fiat and Olivetti. (Allison Grimaldi Donahue, another-screen.com/cecilia-mangini)