On June 24 and 25, the intensive seminar “Films From Below: Emancipation through Cinema” will take place at Casa do Comum, led by Federico Rossin, former participant of Doc’s Kingdom and co-programer of its 2013 edition. The seminar will be conducted in English and will run from 10.30am to 6.30pm.

What are the strategies and forms through which cinema has put an educational and pedagogical process into images and sounds? How can the making of a film be transformed into a process of emancipation that horizontally involves all participants? We will not make yet another seminar on school, but on documentary cinema as an open work in progress, as a form of life in the making, as an instrument of self-awareness with the others, as a collective work of liberation and resistance. We will go through a vast panoply of radical pedagogical experiences that have taken place in the most diverse spheres, countries, historical moments, and we will analyse together the film works made by/with the most diverse political and social actors involved in radical film pedagogy practices (out-of-school children, street adolescents, first and second generation immigrants, indigenous populations, illiterate people, mentally ill patients, post-colonial workers, landless peasants, etc.).

Federico Rossin is a film critic, historian, professor and programmer. He studied literature, art history and philosophy.He is a curator in the fields of experimental, documentary, and animation cinema, and an independent programmer for worldwide festivals (among others: États généraux du film documentaire de Lussas, Cinéma du Réel, Doclisboa) and cinematheques (among others: Film Museum Vienna, Cinémathèque Française, Cineteca Italiana). He published seven books and regularly collaborates with various magazines (among others: Il Manifesto, Cahiers du Cinéma).

This seminar is free and open to everyone. Please write an email to phildoc@fcsh.unl.pt if you would like to attend. Registration is mandatory, as places are limited.

This event is organised by Doc’s Kingdom in partnership with the research group “Thinking Documentary Film” (IFILNOVA). It is supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e para a Tecnologia) of the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science under the project UID/00183: NOVA Institute of Philosophy.