ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines a brief history of Italian industrial documentary film, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the late 1960s, underlining the role of the main firms in “modern” industry (i.e. chemicals, energy and mobility) and their attitude toward cinema as a communication tool. The aim is to provide some sort of “guide” through this vast and varied source of imagines from the past, partly stored now as files in Archivio del Cinema Industriale e della Comunicazione d’Impresa at the Università Cattaneo in Castellanza.
