Florence: Days of Destruction
- Program
- Florence: Days of Destruction
- Producing Organization
- Radiotelevisione italiana
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/516-w950g3j57g
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- Description
- Program Description
- On November 4, the most devastating floods in Italys history swept through one third of the country. Hardest hit was the city of Florence, with its priceless art. The losses in Florence are the worst ones that one can imagine after the losses of human lives. Because images of our own civilization are being lost, says host and narrator Richard Burton at the beginning of the program. Franco Zeffirelli and I have decided to witness these days in Florence. The towns effort, the towns need of help. The program opens with stills of Florence before the disaster and then shows the sudden violence of the floods, the waters rising, expanding, the current getting stronger, becoming torrential. Everything is submerged by water, shops full of goods and Christmas things, homes. People are cut off, stranded, defenseless. And then with incredible effort, life starts again. People help each other, and then help pours in from all over the world. The city is desolate, the damage is vast and as yet incalculable. Florences great art heritage has been ravaged its priceless paintings, sculptures, books, and frescoes. The National Library has been invaded by water and much of its great collection lost forever, the whole church of Santa Croce has been invaded by water and its treasures coated in mud and oil. Hundreds of people have been working day and night here in Santa Croce, says an American volunteer, looking for things, removing, trying to save, digging, cleaning. They werent expert hands, they were volunteers, soldiers, students, kids from all over the world. But no one could have worked with more care and love, in spite of the terrible conditions, the fatigue, the stench of mud, the cold . The program shows the terrible extent of damage, the salvaging and preserving operations that begin immediately, the infinite patience, skill, and years of work that will be required for the restoration, the pressing need for money, technical supplies, and labor. Interviewed in the program is an American volunteer; a craftsman; professors; restorers; Professor Frederick Hartt, an expert in Florentine art and culture from the University of Pennsylvania. Florence: Days of Destruction is a National Educational Television presentation, a production of Radiotelevisione Italiana. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Program Description
- 1 hour program, produced in 1966 by Radio-Televisione Italiana (RAI), originally shot on videotape.
- Broadcast Date
- 1966-12-19
- Asset type
- Program
- Genres
- Documentary
- Topics
- Environment
- Weather
- Media type
- other
- Credits
-
-
Composer: Vlad, Roman, 1919-2013
Director: Zeffirelli, Franco
Executive Producer: Howard, Brice
Host: Burton, Richard
Interviewee: Hartt, Frederick
Producing Organization: Radiotelevisione italiana
Writer: Colombo, Bruno
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
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- Citations
- Chicago: “Florence: Days of Destruction,” 1966-12-19, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed April 25, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-w950g3j57g.
- MLA: “Florence: Days of Destruction.” 1966-12-19. American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. April 25, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-w950g3j57g>.
- APA: Florence: Days of Destruction. Boston, MA: American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-w950g3j57g