Political Trial (1971)

Overview

Produced in 1971 by the collective behind the magazine “Che fare” and directed by Francesco Leonetti and Arnaldo Pomodoro, the film analyzes the socio-political context of 1969-1970 Italy, denouncing the death of the anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli and recounting the defamation lawsuit filed by police commissioner Luigi Calabresi against the weekly magazine “Lotta Continua,” which had accused him of the murder. Combining different genres and temporal perspectives—documentary and fiction—the film stands as a significant example of the “militant cinema” that became an important tool for counter-information in the 1960s and 1970s. Presented at the Mostra internazionale del Nuovo Cinema di Pesaro in 1971, “Processo politico” was deemed excessively experimental and provoked harsh reactions from audiences and critics alike.