Placecinemaking or cinema for placemaking: a reflexive validation

The purpose for writing this paper is twofold: (1) building on the former PBPD publication on “Placecinemaking”, from the viewpoints of the foundations of history, theory, and methodology; and (2) demonstrating the methodology on a new movie/place-making project, “Le Mille Notti”, which was launched after the publication of said PBPD paper. This new submission is therefore a complementary extension and a deeper analysis of what was presented in 2023 on PBPD. The approach is based on documental back-tracing, where needed complemented by interviews and testimonials. The analysis pertains to a wide range of fields, from the history of cinema to leisure direction and to placemaking. This paper is based on a further analysis of the “Placecinemaking” approach, in order to extract: (a) historical roots and context in the history of cinema; to enable (b) application to a new film in the series of projects where the approach was organically developed into a repeatable process; and to present (c) the outcome of the new movie, titled “Le Mille Notti” in the specific areas pertaining to the movie, Borgo Aurora, Turin, and its actors. Research was based on documental back-tracing, therefore no new empirical findings will be made available or generated from this process besides what was tracked in documental sources (newspapers, production notes, earlier interviews as already publicly published and distributed in media, and more). Process and methods will be equivalent to the ones adopted in the PBPB publication, 2023, therefore already tested and proven by peer review. The paper will have a potential high impact in terms of further proving, justifying, and contextualizing an organic approach as formalized in a repeatable process. The paper does uniquely present, critically review, and demonstrate the place-making fit of a new film, “Le Mille Notti”, providing additional insights into the “Placecinemaking” approach.