CINÉTALKS
GRAMMARS OF GENDER: CRITICAL LITERACY BETWEEN CINEMA AND REALITY
For several years, the Trieste Film Festival has been promoting the idea of cinema not only as a tool for educating the gaze and visual awareness, but also as a means of bringing younger generations closer to socially and historically significant issues through dedicated programs during the festival and ongoing projects throughout the school year.
The educational project Grammars of Gender for schools in Trieste – in collaboration with GOAP, the city’s anti-violence center -has involved more than 250 students from the Deledda/Fabiani,Galvani/Nautico, Sandrinelli/Carli, Carducci/Dante, and Ciofs institutes.
The programme has begun with a series of classroom training sessions led by GOAP operators, designed to provide girls and boys with tools to understand the roots of violence against women and gender-based violence, with the aim of raising awareness and prevention of gender-based violence.
The project continues with the screening of the film À bras-le-corps (Silent Rebellion, direction by Maria Elsa Sgualdo, 2025) as part of the 37th Trieste Film Festival, and is followed by a discussion with the film’s director and GOAP staff. The experience is a valuable moment of direct exchange, in which the immediate language of cinema becomes a bridge between personal experience and collective reflection.
It was also suggested that other films on the same themes be viewed within the TSFF 37 programme by all interested schools in the city.
After the festival, a broader debriefing will be held at the Teatro Miela, also open to other schools: another debate coordinated by the GOAP will allow the participants to challenge themselves with a questionnaire, and to analyse the impact of gender-based violence on their own lives.
Once again, cinema proves to be a tool for interpersonal and emotional learning. In a period marked by the resurgence of femicides and misogynistic, transphobic, and homophobic violence, schools have to bear the responsibility of providing education on relationships, sexuality, and gender – often without access to the necessary resources. Grammars of Gender aims to be the beginning of a longer journey, the goal of which can be moved towards by collaborating with organizations committed to combating gender-based violence, and transforming cinema into a space for exploration, storytelling and mutual growth.
CINEMA AND MEMORY PROJECT
Thirty years since the Srebrenica genocide (1995-2025)
Cinema e Memory was born as an experimental educational initiative designed for fifth-year classes in certain high schools in the Trieste area. Its aim is to present cinema to the younger generations as an educational tool and a means of understanding recent European history, in order to grasp its complexity through various cinematic languages—from documentary to fiction—intertwining global and international history with personal biographies and the most intimate stories.
On July 11, 2025, the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide provides an opportunity for reflection on collective memory and on the creation of a culture opposed to war.
Hence, the decision to dedicate an educational and cinematographic initiative to the memory of the Bosnian War, the days of the siege of Sarajevo, and the tragic conclusion of the war marked by the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica.
The project, created in collaboration with the associations Deina Aps and Benkadì Aps, which for years have been organizing active citizenship pathways also through trips and meetings dedicated to the historical memory of the Holocaust and the Yugoslav wars, involved about two hundred students from the Da Vinci/Carli/Sandrinelli, Deledda/Fabiani, and Nautico/Galvani high schools with classroom meetings aimed at providing them with some coordinates for understanding a past that is historically recent and geographically close to our city.
The program included a morning screening, during the TSFF36, of the documentary My father’s diaries by Ado Hasanović, in the presence of the director, which is also part of the CineTalks project, within the network of European cinema festivals MIOB (Moving Images Open Borders).
Cinema and Memory ends with the screening, following the festival’s conclusion, of the film Quo vadis, Aida? by Jasmila Žbanić, in the presence of Irma Hibert, a direct witness of the Bosnian War and author of the book La sopravvissuta (Trieste, Il battello stampatore, 2021). The film screenings also engaged numerous other local schools and university students from the fields of political science and history.
The hope is that the project, given the interest it has generated, will continue to exist in future editions of the festival, involving other high schools and fostering new collaborations with associations operating on the territory in an interdisciplinary perspective that brings younger audiences closer to contemporary cinematography as a way of interpreting history and therefore understanding their own time.
PROPOSALS FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR 2023-2024
AT SCHOOL OF ... CINEMA!
For primary schools
A scuola…di cinema! consists of an approach to the audiovisual and cinematographic language, with hints of cinema history and criticism. In particular, the notions of framing, the scale of fields and planes, camera movements and hints on early cinema will be explored, as well as elements linked to narration (characters, construction of the story), film genres and criticism.
The course will be supported by viewings of particularly significant sequences and games in which the notions learned will be put into practice. As part of the course, the class will participate in a morning screening during the 35th Trieste Film Festival.
For secondary schools
A journey of discovery of film language through classroom lectures and a matinee at the cinema during the Trieste Film Festival. How do you watch a film?
What are the production phases of a film? What exactly does a producer, director or director of photography do? An educational path to delve into the complex and articulated production methods of cinema and discover the professions and professional figures of the film industry.
If you are a teacher and would like to bring the A scuola di…cinema! project to your classroom, please email aac@alpeadriacinema.it.
CORTI AL CONFINE / EU CIAK
audiovisual education projects in the school year 2023-2024
The EU CIAK project, an audiovisual education workshop, is in its fourth year. EU CIAK is part of a wider project, called “Corti al Confine”, realised in partnership with Casa del Cinema and Maremetraggio association.
The activities involving Alpe Adria Cinema were carried out in 3 high schools in Trieste during the school year 2022-23: recipients of the project were the Istituto Tecnico Statale “G. Deledda – M. Fabiani” – Trieste and the Liceo Scientifico “G.Oberdan” – Trieste.
The multi-stage project combined training activities aimed at fostering the ability to critically read film language and workshop activities aimed at the production of short films.
Initially, it aimed to convey through the viewing and analysis of short films the main elements of film language. The viewing of some short films took place during the 34th Trieste Film Festival. Afterwards, the students participated in workshops aimed at experiencing all the stages of production and the making of a short film: from writing the screenplay to shooting. The audiovisual products produced were presented and voted on by the audience in the auditorium.
EU CIAK is for us a vehicle for promoting the festival and film culture, a path for training and growing the audience of tomorrow.
THE SHORT FILMS MADE DURING THE LAST EDITION
The Corti al Confine project was realised thanks to the contribution of CIPS – Cinema and Images for Schools | National Image Education Plan for Schools promoted by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education.
Other training activities (professional courses for employed and unemployed people) are promoted by the Casa del Cinema di Trieste, of which we are part. For further information and to keep updated on upcoming courses visit www.casadelcinematrieste.it
