KNIR, in collaboration with Eye Filmmuseum, presents a special screening of the newly restored Donna: Women in Revolt (1980, 66 minutes) with director Yvonne Scholten in attendance. This powerful documentary impressively captures 80 years of women’s resistance in Italy, beginning with the brutal fascist attack on the Roman free radio station Radio Donna during a Housewives’ Collective broadcast in January 1979. Through remarkable archival footage and interviews, Scholten explores the Italian women’s movement, featuring women who opposed various forms of oppression, including fascist movements, the church, and political parties.
The film covers a wide range of topics in an accessible manner, such as the divide between early 20th-century feminists and women in peasant and labour movements, the “women’s issue” in major left-wing parties post-war, and second-wave feminism. Donna: Women in Revolt offers a broader understanding of the often forgotten roles of women in history.
The digital restoration of the film is part of an Eye Filmmuseum oral history research project into the history of Feministisch Filmkollektief Cinemien, founded in 1974. The documentary was distributed by Cinemien, and Yvonne Scholten was one of the interviewees in the project.
Programme 
- Welcome by Dr Maria Bonaria Urban, Director of Studies in History at KNIR
- Film Screening Donna: Women in Revolt (1980, 66 minutes)
Introduction by director Yvonne Scholten
- Presentation on Feminist Film Collective Cinemien
Researcher Gerdien Smit (Eye Filmmuseum) will present on the context in which Donna: Women in Revolt was presented to audiences 40 years ago
- Roundtable discussion with Yvonne Scholten and Gerdien Smit, moderated by Maria Bonaria Urban (Director of Studies in History, KNIR)
Restoration
The restoration of Donna: Women in Revolt is a collaboration between the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision and Eye Filmmuseum. The restoration has been made possible thanks to A Season of Classic Films, an initiative of Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE) supported by the EU Creative Europe MEDIA programme.
About the speakers
Yvonne Scholten is a writer and journalist, born on March 16, 1943, in The Hague, the Netherlands. She studied political sciences at the University of Amsterdam. From 1969 to 1982, she worked as a foreign correspondent for Dutch newspapers, radio, and TV in Italy. During this period, she introduced the work of Antonio Gramsci to the Netherlands with her book “Antonio Gramsci. Marxisme als filosofie van de praxis,” published by Van Gennep in 1972.
In 1981, she released her documentary Donna: Women in Revolt through IKON TV. From 1983 to 2004, she served as an editor for Dutch radio and television. Since 2004, she has been freelancing and researching Dutch volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, which can be found on spanjestrijders.nl. She has published several works on this topic. Read more in Italian.
Gerdien Smit is a policy advisor and researcher at Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She initiated and led an oral history pilot study on the Feminist Film Collective Cinemien (1974-1984), supported by a Museum Grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Together with Cecilia Valenti, she authored the forthcoming article “Archivaktivismus mit Cinemien: Ein Gespräch über das Kuratieren und Bewahren der Geschichte eines transnationalen feministischen Filmverleihnetzwerks,” which will appear in the September 2024 issue of Frauen und Film. Her earlier research focused on cinematic representations of the ‘leaden years’ and the era of ’68 in Italian cinema.
