Research by RMIT University’s Associate Professor Deb Verhoeven, looking at Italian and Greek cinemagoing in Australia, has resulted in a book – Parlato in Italiano – which was launched in Myrtleford this weekend as part of the La Fiera Festival.

Parlato in Italiano – The Heyday of Italian Cinema in Myrtleford in the 1960s is a tribute to the cinema as a significant meeting place in the cultural landscape and memory of a regional area – Myrtleford.

In the early 1960s, the Victorian town of Myrtleford boasted a ‘theatre precinct’ in Myrtle Street. Two venues served as cinemas, both presenting weekly programs that included films of all kinds screened in Italian – “parlato in italiano”. In the same street, the Golden Valley Café gave the precinct a cosmopolitan atmosphere, especially on movie nights.

Associate Professor Verhoeven said: “The result of over three years of research, the book is especially timely and topical for two reasons. Firstly, in view of the advanced ages of so many connected with Italian film screenings in Myrtleford during the 1950s, 60s and 70s; secondly, in view of the closure of the tobacco industry in the district.

“The demise of this industry, formalised in October 2006, is well recognised as a socio-economic fact of profound significance to the Italian Australian community local to Myrtleford and points to an urgent need to record, preserve, and share the community’s history; to celebrate its contribution to the cultural and commercial landscape of the town and surrounds,” she said.

Contents include prefaces by Sir James Gobbo, AC CVO, and Daryl McIntyre, CEO National Film and Sound Archive, as well as edited interviews, photographs, press clippings, archival documents, and an article by Associate Professor Verhoeven on the wider context of the ‘1960s heyday’ arising from her research on migrant cinema and cinema audiences in postwar Australia.

The book is edited by John Taylor and Cynthia Troup, published by the Myrtleford and District Historical Society and costs AUD $20.00 per copy.