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Programma 101, The Machine That Changed the World

Programma 101, The Machine That Changed the World

Programma 101, The Machine That Changed the World (2011, 52’) by Alessandro Bernard and Paolo Ceretto.
Produced by Zenit Arti Audiovisive in association with Docabout and Franti Nisi Masa
In collaboration with Fox International Channels Italy, Yle Teema, Sbs Australia, UR The Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company
With the support of MEDIA Programme EU and Piemonte Doc Film Fund – Fondo Regionale per il documentario

Synopsis:
In the early sixties, to talk about computer science meant talking about enormous calculators that were seen as pure science fiction to the vast majority of the population. In 1963 the IBM PDP-1 occupied an entire room, costed 100.000 dollars and it was in few specialized laboratories. And while the world dreams about and fears this object of the future, in that small lab with tainted black windows, our 4 pioneers invented the P101, the machine that the american press defined: «The first desk top computer of the world» This is the birth of our age. But the american big Companies didn’t sit idly by. On June 10th, 1967, Hewlett Packard compensated Olivetti with 900.000 dollars, implicitly recognizing that they had infringed the Olivetti’s patent of the P101 with their model HP 9100 and the inventors received a dollar each as a symbolic gesture, for that invention that changed the world. Programma 101 is the tale of the birth of our era, told through the voices of its protagonists and through an incredible archive material.

Featuring: Giovanni De Sandre, Gastone Garziera, Elserino Piol, Gianluigi Gabetti, Mario Bellini, Bruce Sterling, Tom Boellstorff, Dag Spicer, Robert Martinelli, Federico Faggin, Gordon Bell.

Technical data:
Written and directed by: Alessandro Bernard and Paolo Ceretto
Produced by: Massimo Arvat
Photography: Paolo Rapalino
Editor: Marco Duretti
Original Soundtrack: Andrea Gattico
Info and contacts: Francesca Portalupi, francesca@zenit.to.it

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