From gunpowder to film: birth and future of FERRANIA
Little Manchester
23/05/2021
FerraniAnalogica
23/05/2021
You are transported into a world of film, colour and history. A kaleidoscope where every corner reveals a precious and fascinating detail. From the cinema, through the products, the culture, the community that grew up around the factory, to the nature that embraces the plant with the Adelasia Park.
- Ferrania Film Museum (Cairo Montenotte)
- Ferrania village
- Prà sottano
- Ferrania plant and S.i.p.e. power station
The itinerary includes 13 significant places summarised in 4 stages that wind their way between the Ferrania Film Museum and the plant, illustrating the past and present of this important local industrial reality.
The duration of the tour is one day, divided between morning and afternoon.
In the afternoon, you will be able to use your own vehicle or, on request, a hired shuttle bus.
In 1917 an extraordinary industry dedicated to photosensitive film was born in the woods, and after 100 years we tell the story of the men and women, the darkness, the machines, the energies, the products, the Ferrania universe that can be defined as an entire world that gravitated around these places.
Morning – Ferrania Film Museum
Conceived as a sort of itinerary through the rooms, the museum aims to portray the many aspects of industrial events: the life of the factory, corporate culture and corporate affairs, design and visual communication, architecture, products and patents, the war years and more recent ones
The various departments, from photography to radiography, the light and dark of the departments, the great season of colour and cinema, and the social universe of Ferrania, consisting of the workers’ village, the Christmas parcel, the after-work club, and much more, are also housed inside.
The museum also contains a first body of artefacts from the factory: machines, measuring instruments, glassware, delivery notebooks, various objects.
Afternoon – Production plant
The history of Ferrania films has its roots in the Val Bormida of the early 1900s, when the S.i.p.e. factory was established in Cengio and began producing ‘B powder’ for the Russian artillery during the First World War. The Fabbrica Italiana Lamine Milano (F.I.L.M.) was founded, later linked to the prestigious Cappelli, which created the Ferrania brand.
The 1940s and 1950s saw the birth of two of the world’s best-known films, the P30 black and white panchromatic film and Ferraniacolor, the only colour film made in Europe after the war. From the past to the present, the history of the plant goes through many vicissitudes and changes and new ownership structures.
