"Gela antica e nuova". Parole immagini per un paesaggio industriale

On 19 June 1960, the Eni petrochemical company laid the foundation stone of its new industrial complex in Gela, Sicily. At the same time the corporation entrusted Giuseppe Ferrara, recently graduated from a centre for studies in experimental cinema, with the production of a documentary. His assignment was to «tell the construction of the Gela petrochemical while it was being realized». The emerging author, Leonardo Sciascia, was chosen to write the texts for the work. The issue of the resulting film, “Gela antica e nuova”, took place in 1964, following the death of Enrico Mattei, the charismatic administrator of Eni. However the narrative structure is undoubtedly connected with a project directed by Mattei himself, completely shared and approved by the authors. The documentary reflects precise rhetorical strategies. Clearly not by accident, the process of the industrial rise of the city is illustrated by recalling the foundation rituals and memories of the ancient landscape, still essential for solid anchoring in the present. In contemporary historiography, research into Gela requires both the analysis of what has been done, and the way it was illustrated.