Circle

Abstract

A concentric intertwining of female perspectives is the subject of this essay, which describes the discovery, preservation, and reuse of the amateur film and video collection belonging to the Togni circus family. The article chronicles a decadelong adventure that led from the discovery of this amateur film collection to the making of Circle (2016), a found footage film recently completed by Valentina Monti. The film is the result of complicated research that involved a composite group of archivists and filmmakers, including many women. Most of the materials reused in the film were originally shot by three women, Christiane Bottinelli, Liliana Casartelli, and Fiorenza Colombo (wives of the Togni brothers), from the 1940s on. Their filmed memories are extraordinary micro-historical documents that grant access to the experiences of women in the highly patriarchal world of the traditional circus.