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| "Young local perspectives" project |
The territory can provide rich stimuli for teaching, as long as those stimuli can be brought together and transformed into a program that unites the school's own knowledge and the knowledge of the reality. An obvious characteristic of landscape, in a history-rich country inhabited for millennia like Italy, is that they offer a natural environment that has been profoundly humanized, a landscape that is a kind of palimsest of many events accumulated over time, simultaneously precious, complex and fragile.
Of course it can be of great value for young people to acknowledge their roots. But it is equally important that after thousands of hours of looking at screens, they should have the chance to discover the world from the other side, to discover the different skills required by a multidisciplinary product like a film and, through experience, to find within themselves a previously unrecognized ability or interest. A school can become a compass, able to orient, to accompany, to give meaning.
The new project for high schools organized by the Corto in Bra festival's first summer edition has been for the first time in collaboration with Italia Nostra, an association dedicated to protecting the environment and active locally for more than 30 years. The initial part of the project was held in April and May and involved 16- to 18-year-olds at high schools in Bra and Alba. The students participated in an introductory lesson and then developed either an essay or a piece of creative writing on the landscape.
Students chosen based on the quality of their work and their interest had the chance to take part in an internship during which they worked alongside a professional director and cameraman, sharing the whole experience of making a short film from start to finish. The result of this work are two short films (“La casa del Santo” and “Tra gli alberi, sopra i tetti”) focusing on two pieces of the urban landscape: the Zizzola, symbol of Bra, and the house where St. Giuseppe Cottolengo was born. These locations were chosen for the important role they play in Bra's community identity and the fact that recent renovations have restored them to the city.
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