Elvira Notari, Italy's first film director, gains renewed attention despite most of her work being lost

Maria Elvira Giuseppa Coda, known as Elvira Notari, made history as Italy's first female film director, born on February 10, 1875, in Salerno. Between 1906 and 1930, she directed approximately sixty feature films and around one hundred short films, but only three features remain: È piccerella, ’A santanotte, and Fantasia ’e surdato. Much of her oeuvre was lost due to the censorship of the Fascist regime and the volatile nature of nitrate film. Together with her husband, Nicola Notari, she co-founded Dora Film, producing documentaries aimed at Italian immigrants in New York. Following the studio's closure in 1930, she established an acting school and passed away on December 17, 1946. Scholars like Valerio Ciriaci and Giuliana Bruno have endeavored to revive her legacy, which includes recent screenings and a biographical novel, with most of her work archived at the Cineteca Nazionale in Rome.