These programs of Elvira Notari’s extant works will highlight two feature films from 1922—È piccerella and ‘A santanotte—rooted in the Neapolitan melodramatic artistic form of sceneggiata that fuses popular songs and elements of the variety show; Fantasia ‘e surdato, an incomplete feature film from 1927—depicting the vulgar antics of a man whose brother is wrongfully accused of his murder—that was severely cut down and re-edited by Notari after failing to pass fascist censorship; and two fragment compilations that organically present collaged pieces of Notari’s films believed to be lost in their entirety. It is likely that these surviving films were originally hand-colored or tinted since Dora Film specialized in such techniques; however only ‘A santanotte and select fragments still contain these effects due to preservation practices of the late 1960s in which combustible nitrate films were copied onto black and white safety film, erasing most remnants of the coloring effects. The identification of a tinted US distribution nitrate print of ‘A santanotte rediscovered at the George Eastman Museum allows for a better understanding of how Notari’s films may have appeared at the time of their release. – excerpt from program introduction