Urban Visions. Beyond the Ideal City (2022)

Bologna will host the third edition of the international film festival “Urban Vision. Beyond the Ideal City” (UV) which will include a competition for short films. The Festival will be in hybrid format, with online free streaming of all films in competition together with in-presence events and screenings of award-winning films at City Space Architecture's headquarters and at selected cinemas.

The aim of the UV film festival is to develop a field of research activities to facilitate a dialogue between urban theory, social complexity and film studies, and to raise awareness of some contemporary urban issues, emphasizing the relationship between individuals and the urban spaces they inhabit. In this context, a film becomes a tool to open new perspectives, to explore new theoretical paradigms and research methods, to establish an effective understanding around urban humanities, especially in the urban settings in which the festival will take place. 

“URBAN VISIONS. Beyond the Ideal City” is the first, indipendent, Italian-based film festival for short films entirely dedicated to the contemporary city and to urban public life, aimed at exploring urban humanities through an interdisciplinary approach.

Official website (in Italian): www.cityspacearchitecture.org/urbanvisions.

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“URBAN VISIONS. Beyond the Ideal City” / Third edition / 24-27 November 2022, Bologna & ONLINE

FREE streaming: https://visioniurbane.stream/

Credits: the cover image is a still frame from PANORAMA by Gianluca Abbate (2014)

Activities

The third edition of the international film festival “Urban Vision. Beyond the Ideal City” (UV) in Bologna will analyse the living conditions of migrants, refugees and displaced communities, in Italy and elsewhere, and will explore how communities are responding to the health and economic crises generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

After the challenges and difficulties generated by the pandemic for the previous two editions, this third edition of the Festival will be an opportunity to meet the audience at the cinema and to foster dialogues and cultural exchanges.

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The Festival is aimed at engaging young and experienced film-makers through an open competition for short films. SUBMIT your film on FilmFreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/FilmFestivalUrbanVisions

"URBAN VISIONS / A-Place" competition includes:
- A-Place / Migrants, refugees and displaces communities, investigating the living conditions of migrants, refugees and displaced communities in cities, in Italy and elsewhere.
- A-Place / Resilient Communities, investigating the work of self-organized communities through creative and multidisciplinary placemaking initiatives.

The Festival will also host a series of activities, workshops and talks with international filmmakers, artists, creative practitioners and the creative community in Bologna, Italy.

Awards & Prizes

Category: A-Place / Migrants, refugees and displaced communities
1st prize - € 500 in cash
2nd prize - € 300 in cash
3rd prize - € 200 in cash
2 honorable mentions - certificate of excellence

Category: A-Place / Resilient Communities
1st prize - € 500 in cash
2 honorable mentions - certificate of excellence

The Festival is interested to collect narratives of different realities, to investigate city’s connections, intersections and activities while focusing on the public realm, where public aspects, related to participation, sharing and social practices, blend with private aspirations, related to individuality, diversity and lifestyles. Urban Visions intends to collect stories of happiness or poverty, success or solitude, compliance or rebellion, beyond the seducing and reassuring shapes of the beautiful, ideal city. Overcoming the stereotypes and well-known images of consumerism, Urban Visions looks for something that our eyes, deliberately or unconsciously, don’t know or can’t see.

Objectives

The planned activities around the UV film festival will contribute to achieve the following objectives of A-Place:  

• To create cross-disciplinary learning spaces, engaging an inter-generational audience and different social groups, with a particular focus on youth, with a particular focus on migrants, refugees and displace communities. Bologna is one of the most progressive Italian cities in terms of civil rights and policies to guarantee safe and caring hospitality for people in need. The UV Film Festival will contribute to foster understanding of the living conditions of migrants and refugees. 

• To develop and apply creative placemaking practices, through workshops, art-based interventions and temporary transformation of space, both indoors and outdoors, in order to establish new places for peaceful coexistence of residents, migrants and refugees. These activities will contribute to foster solidarity, cooperation and trust among people from diverse cultural origins and to approach notions of identity and belonging from a multidisciplinary perspective.