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This dissertation explores Italian colonial cinema of the liberal and fascist eras. The study respects the international and intertextual nature of the films, thus engaging in both a diachronic and synchronic approach to cinematic analysis. I investigate three generally overlooked aspects in greater detail: the relationship between the subject periods of colonial cinema, the tension present in these productions between nationalism and transnational influences, and the ethnographic dimension within Italian colonial films. In the first chapter I look at how expressions of national identity and fascination with the primitive body began to take shape in liberal era cinema. This chapter takes as its point of departure Giovanni Pastrone's silent historical masterpiece, Cabiria (1914), and then shifts its focus to the lesser-known productions of wartime actuality filmmaker, Luca Comerio. I seek to draw a less obvious connection between these filmic artists of the period in question and within the larger colonial film culture, which came to fruition in the 1930s. The following chapters move on to a selection of fascist colonial feature films, my focus for the remainder of the dissertation. Chapter 2 concentrates on two films produced on location in Libya: Kif tebbi (1928) and Lo squadrone bianco (1936). Chapter 3 examines films partially set in Ethiopia during the imperial phase: Il grande appello (1936) and Luciano Serra, pilota (1938). The final chapter focuses on films produced entirely on location in Ethiopia with mostly native casts: Sotto la croce del sud (1938) and Abuna Messias (1939). My reading of these productions, some of which have been entirely neglected in current scholarship, seeks to uncover the tension between Italy's exposure to external, especially French, influences despite its contrary nationalizing mission. I also point to representations that are more unique to Italy. Finally, I examine the films through an ethnographic lens, an angle central to the study, to explore how Italian filmmakers cinematically inscribed notions of racial and cultural difference through their projection of Africa. As my final chapter demonstrates, this practice more fully manifests in the films produced in the late 1930s, but also shares traits with liberal era film culture.
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