Competition and program of the second edition of the Urban Visions Film Festival

Less than seven months after the successful first edition of the Urban Visions Film Festival, held fully online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, City Space Architecture organized the second edition of the Festival on 11-14 November 2021. This edition was designed with a hybrid format: all films were available on the streaming platform free of charge during the days of the Festival with the same conditions of the first edition, but some public screenings and a two-day film exhibition were also organized at City Space Architecture’s headquarters in Bologna.
After the challenges and difficulties of the pandemic, this second edition of the Festival was an opportunity to bring the local community back to a physical gathering space and to foster dialogues and cultural exchanges.

The aim of the Urban Visions film festival is to develop a field of research activities to facilitate a dialogue between urban theory, social complexity and film studies, while raising awareness of contemporary urban issues, and 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 and to establish an effective understanding of urban humanities, especially in the urban settings in which the festival takes place.

Program

In response to the open call published on FilmFreeway published in August 2021, aimed at engaging young and experienced film-makers, the second edition of the Festival City Space Architecture received 168 films from 35 countries (Figure 3.1). The final selection of the A-Place competitions was curated by Luisa Bravo (City Space Architecture) and shortlisted:

- 12 out of the 26 entries for the category “Migrants, refugees and displaced communities”, aimed at investigating the living conditions of migrants, refugees and displaced communities in cities, in Italy and elsewhere;

- 12 out of the 29 entries for the category “Resilient Communities”, aimed at investigating the work of self-organized communities through creative and multidisciplinary placemaking initiatives.

For the A-Place programme, the second edition of Urban Visions film festival included the following activities:

- opening ceremony

- free streaming of 12 shortlisted films from the category “Migrants, refugees and displaced communities”

- free streaming of 12 shortlisted films from the category “Resilient Communities”

- an online international seminar

- an online interview with an international artist

- a two-day film exhibition at City Space Architecture headquarters

- in-presence screenings at City Space Architecture headquarters

- award ceremony and closing session