Cinema communities for Innovation, Networks and Environment
Cinema communities for Innovation, Networks and Environment (CINE) works to promote film in communities where cinemas don’t exist or are disappearing, focusing on their ability to serve as venues for cultural and social aggregation while sowing the seeds of environmental and food culture among younger generations.
With this project, Slow Food and its Italian and international partners want to support cinema, revitalizing the role of film within local communities.
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The Context
In 2019 the European Commission launched a €2 million call for proposals to create innovative cultural hubs around cinemas, particularly in areas with limited cinema and cultural infrastructure. This was the first call of the Preparatory Action “Cinemas as Innovation Hubs for Local Communities”. Preparatory actions are designed to introduce and test new initiatives, with funding for no more than three years. The aim of this specific action was to try out new ways of supporting the creation of innovative cultural venues and empowering cinemas to innovate and play a more important role in their local communities. Audience development activities were supported, encouraging cinemas to provide access not only to audiovisual content, but also to other cultural content and services, as well as educational and entertainment activities for young audiences.
Out of 46 applications, the European Commission chose five projects for funding, with Slow Food’s CINE the only one selected from Italy.
Slow Food’s response
Slow Food strongly believes in the capacity of cinema to forge a bond between viewers. Even in our current era of individual cultural consumption, as we sit in our living rooms with our screens connected to a boundless universe of online content, cinemas continue to play an important role as cultural aggregators, particularly in smaller communities.
This awareness led to the launch of the CINE project, which focuses on supporting the function of cinemas as cultural reference points where common values and themes revolving around environmental protection, gastronomic heritage and the people working in the food industry can be discussed at both a local and a global level.
A new kind of cinematic experience
The program of screenings has been developed in collaboration with CinemAmbiente and local cinemas, selecting primarily European films. But the project isn’t just about showing movies and documentaries. A series of complementary events — like tastings and debates involving local people working to promote environmental and gastronomic sustainability — have been organized alongside the screenings.
What makes CINE innovative is its desire to bring together film and activism, entertainment and civic engagement. As well as supporting the smallest cinemas and involving local communities, Slow Food also wants to introduce younger generations to issues around the environment and food, inspiring them to participate directly in activities.
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The Activities
CINE Trainings
One of the CINE project’s partners is the Mobile Film Festival, a competition founded in France in 2005 that challenges aspiring directors to produce a one-minute film on their phone. As part of its activities, the Mobile Film Festival teaches young people aged between 14 and 25 how to use easily accessible devices, like smartphones, to make short films of high quality.
Within the project, the Mobile Film Festival is responsible for coming up with ways of engaging young people, bringing them back into cinemas and training them to create real movies.
Since 2005, the Mobile Film Festival has grown internationally and now receives submissions from hundreds of countries. The festival’s aim is to uncover talented filmmakers through the unique format of 1 Mobile, 1 Minute, 1 Film.
Using a smartphone as a movie camera fits perfectly with the inclusive, participatory ethos of the CINE project. The Mobile Film Festival recruited young filmmakers who are previous festival award winners to act as trainers, sharing their experience, creativity and knowledge about how to best use a smartphone as a camera.
During two workshops, in Brač, Croatia, and in Bra, Italy, the Mobile Film Festival trained people who will then go back to their hometown to train teenagers and other young people as part of the CINE project.
The training sessions are based on five stages, organized over three days:
- Presentation: a discussion of the basic principles of storytelling, looking at famous examples such as The Lion King, The Godfather and other iconic films, which can be adapted to any country.
- Brainstorming: helping the participants put down on paper their ideas and a story or script.
- Preparation: the team defines what they will need to shoot, where they will shoot and how they will use the camera and, if possible, holds some rehearsals.
- Shooting: generally lasts about half a day; the better the preparation, the better the shooting will go.
- Editing: the key final session.
The Mobile Film Festival recommends simple software for mobile phones that facilitates editing.
Thanks to this innovative methodology developed by the Mobile Film Festival, the CINE project has started to engage with young people, turning a spotlight on critical food and environment issues and enabling them to become reporters and activists in their own right.
Watch some of the short films shot by the participants during the training sessions
CINE Events
What makes CINE innovative is its desire to bring together film and activism, entertainment and civic engagement.
The idea is for CINE hubs to be the focus of alliances of local actors who coalesce around the cinema, brought together by the common interests of “people, plate and planet.” Local cultural associations, libraries, cafés, art galleries, public institutions, environmental groups are others will all be invited to join in and come up with actions to engage audiences in ways beyond just watching films.
The project is based on an on-the-ground methodology that involves a series of key local actors and stakeholders, united by the common goal of creating events that can attract citizens. This is the key to generating the future sustainability of CINE hub: providing inspiration for an individual commitment to the common good and well-being of the community. The CINE project has so far launched three innovative cinema hubs based on this philosophy, two in Italy and one in Croatia.
CINE has designed and configured a set of tools for supporting the creation or revitalization of cinemas, helping them become cultural reference points for local communities and including them in wider networks that will nurture them in the long term, helping them to find resources and new ideas.
The tools developed have been made available to local communities and include selected film programming focusing on food and the environment, a range of food experiences that can be organized with local artisan food producers and retailers, cultural readings and education activities targeting children and involving schools.
Workshops on filmmaking for young people were also included, ensuring the creation of links and alliances with other community activities, venues, festivals and events.
The CINE hubs provide entertaining and thought-provoking cultural experiences and content that resonates with different sectors of the community.
The cultural life of the communities involved has benefitted from a more varied offering, capable of opening new perspectives, stimulating interests and perhaps also civic commitment by connecting the dots between various forms of entertainment and by placing the CINE hubs at the center of thriving local and global networks.
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The Partnership
The Cinema communities for Innovation, Networks and Environment (CINE) project is funded by the European Union, with the contribution of CRC Foundation, and coordinated by Slow Food. The project partners are:
- the French Mobile Film Festival,
- the Croatian association Kinookus
- the Associazione CinemAmbiente,
- the Cinema Boaro in Ivrea (province of Turin, Italy),
- the Cinema Vittoria in Bra (province of Cuneo, Italy)
- the City of Cherasco (province of Cuneo, Italy).
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