Our Ordinary Cinema: A Bilingual Book Is Reviving Gorizia's Heritage

"Making the history of cinema was about exploring how immersing ourselves in the flow of film changes the way we perceive reality." - Sandro Scandolara

A bilingual edition of the book Our Ordinary Cinema / Nostro cine quotidiano, a valuable work on the film history of Gorizia, has been published. Released as part of the official program of the European Capital of Culture GO! 2025, it is available for the first time in a Slovenian-Italian bilingual version. Originally published in 2001 to mark Gorizia's millennium, the book by journalist and film critic Sandro Scandolara has been translated into Slovenian by Janko Petrovec, designed by Silvia Klainscek, and edited by Martina Humar.

The Multifaceted History of Gorizia Through the Lens of Cinema

In this work, the author intertwines the city’s history with the development of cinema, giving significant attention to the people, places, and events that have shaped the region's film culture. The book is richly illustrated with valuable visual materials, allowing readers to delve deeply into Gorizia’s multifaceted history through the lens of the seventh art.

The republication of the book in a bilingual Slovenian-Italian version is not only a tribute to the author and his legacy but also an important step in preserving and valuing the audiovisual heritage of this cross-border region.

"It has been a quarter of a century since the first edition, yet Our Everyday Cinema remains an enduring inspiration with the same intensity! The bilingual edition, part of the European Capital of Culture GO! 2025 program, is more than just a commemoration of the past; it represents our commitment to preserving and transmitting our shared cinematic heritage to future generations and enriching the cultural heartbeat of our twin city," said Mateja Zorn, project manager at Kinoatelje.

The book’s design was crafted by Silvia Klainscek, a Gorizia-born graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. Since her student years, Klainscek has pursued a personal artistic exploration in which painting, colors, and brushstrokes gradually evolved into a language closer to graphic design. Active in Gorizia’s artistic scene, she has participated in exhibitions and contributed to organizing shows. Around a year ago, Klainscek established a workshop in Gorizia for manual letterpress printing. She had previously worked for years in a historic Gorizia print shop that retained old tools and materials no longer in use. In the early 2000s, she received a collection of wooden letters of various sizes and an antique printing press from the shop’s former owner. Only recently, after many years, did she decide to restore and reuse them for printing small limited-edition works. Today, she uses traditional printing methods to create contemporary graphics.

For the Our Ordinary Cinema project, she designed the bilingual edition, including the book’s layout, the graphic design of the cover, and manually printed postcards dedicated to cinematic walks, as well as creating all promotional and supplementary materials. In designing the book, Klainscek preserved the structure of the original edition, rich with images. The cover is a digital rendering of movable type printing. The artist drew inspiration from numerous vintage film posters printed with movable type, giving the cover a taste of the book’s content.