Cinema communities for Innovation, Networks and Environment

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.