Laguna Sud | Film Residency
Title of the residency: The Water Beneath Your Feet – Artistic residency in Southern Lagoon
Length (days of residency): 14 days
Place/date: Chioggia (Ve) from May 25 to June 7, 2020
Number of participants: 6 documentary filmmakers under the age of 35 (Italian citizenship is not necessary, a basic knowledge of the Italian language is recommended, but not obligatory)
Application to be submitted by March12, 2020 by sending an email to comunicazione@zalab.org – subject line: Application for the film residency: The Water Beneath Your Feet
In their email applicants must provide:
- a curriculum vitae and a telephone number
- a motivation letter
- a showreel of previous works or link to watch the videos in full
- information on their skills (such as shooting or editing skills)
The residency
The Water Beneath Your Feet is an artistic residency for six young documentary filmmakers under the age of 35, to be held in Chioggia from May 25 to June 7, 2020.
The selected authors will be hosted in Chioggia from May 25 to June 7, 2020, where they will have a two-stage residential experience. In the first phase they will attend thematic and technical workshops with directors, photographers, editors, and critics with an international experience, as well as researchers and experts of the Lagoon. In the second phase they will make the location scouting, meet their protagonists and shoot, with the supervision of two ZaLab tutors, with the aim of producing 6 short films able to deepen the relationship between humankind and water, exploring the spaces and the ethical, aesthetic and cultural values that the concept of “lagoon” can have in the understanding of the selected young artists.
The works produced will then be screened in an event organized at the end of the residency, with the purpose of allowing the best two of the six works produced to enter the short film competition “Lagune – vite sull’acqua” in the framework of Laguna Sud 2020. The winner will then be screened at the independent section of the Venice International Film Festival called Giornate degli Autori.
The intent is to gather distant and close looks of authors from both Veneto and other regions of Italy, with different backgrounds and skills, in order to stimulate the production of 6 different but complementary stories of Chioggia and the South Lagoon.
The Water Beneath Your Feet will be not only an artistic residential experience but also a social, ethical, aesthetic and visionary one. By immersing themselves in the Venetian outskirts, in their urban and terrestrial areas as well as in their water, participants will have the opportunity to start and develop a deep and diverse understanding of something that has interested different societies in different times: the relationship between humankind and circumscribed water – a lagoon, a lake, a river or even an artificial limit.
How does humankind relate to a water space that blends in with the earth? A space that connects the territories and yet separates them? Which “lagoons” populate our individual and collective life and how many are they?
These are some of the questions to which the filmmakers in residency will try to find an answer, as they’ll get to know the urban context, its stories, its spaces and its tensions. So, they’ll give the town new stories that will be the result of the encounter and exchange of the filmmakers with the town itself, in what will be a most spontaneous and authentic process.
The ideal candidate has proven experience in at least one of the different audiovisual skills such as writing, shooting, direction of photography, editing, or directing.
The residency will cover the following expenses: travel, board and lodging for the selected filmmakers and a budget for the making of the short films, including the possible rental expenses (both for equipment and working spaces).
An interview might be organized via Skype or at one of ZaLab’s operational headquarters, should the jury need it in order to make the selection.
What is “Laguna Sud – Il cinema fuori dal Palazzo”
“Laguna Sud – Il cinema fuori dal Palazzo” is a project of Giornate degli Autori, under the artistic direction of Andrea Segre and Giorgio Gosetti, coordinated by ZaLab, in collaboration with Fondazione Clodiense ONLUS and Pro Loco Chioggia-Sottomarina.
This project, in its fifth edition in 2019, is held in Chioggia in August, in a peripheral position from La Biennale d’Arte Cinematografica di Venezia, creating an ideal point of contact between the islands of the Venice Lagoon and making again the film art a heritage for all.
Laguna Sud is a lively combination of arthouse films screenings selected by Giornate degli Autori, workshops on documentary filmmaking directed by Andrea Segre and aimed at young filmmakers between aged 18-30, literary meetings and theatrical performances.
The previous workshops had the form of a “pilot” artistic residence: the participants, coming from all over Italy, spent 5 days in Chioggia, working side by side with the artistic directors, trainers and tutors in a process of film writing aimed at the production of short films about the town of Chioggia, focusing on a different theme from year to year. The success of this format, so far carried out with a structure that combines the characteristics of the workshop with those of the residency, has led ZaLab to want to grow this experience by transforming it into a structured artistic residence.
With the support of MiBACT and SIAE, as part of the “Per Chi Crea” programme.
The Water Beneath Your Feet – Artistic residency in Southern Lagoon is made in collaboration with: Giornate degli Autori, Fondazione Clodiense ONLUS, Pro Loco Chioggia-Sottomarina, Municipality of Chioggia.