Identity / Identities

Event Description

Open to the public 

A performistic evening where the questions What does identity mean? and How our identity reflects to our art and our work and vice versa? will invite us to an immersive collective reflection on and about this complex, seductive and necessary concept.

Every year, it is of great interest to bring a current topic encountered during the year-long work of Open Doors to the Locarno Film Festival. These topics have a specific value in a given reality where Open Doors is currently developing their projects, but they also have a universal relevance that is important to be heard at the Festival.  

What caught the attention of the Open Doors team this year is the frustration that many directors from Latin America and the Caribbean display when faced with the cinematic representation of identity. Indeed, it appears as though, very often, young filmmakers from this region feel obliged to comply with a “standard” o “pre-formatted” identity that is easily recognized and accepted in the international cinema circuit, instead of delving into a discussion of more complex and individual identities distinguishing them from this norm. 

This will be more than just a talk and participants will express their views on identity, understood not as a problem or obstacle, but as a powerful instrument that allows everyone to tell their own and unique story. For this artistic exchange, speakers will include directors and producersparticipating in this years’ Open Doors, artists, and festival audience, all together representing several countries and diverse realities. 

Moderated by Marjorie Bendeck (Open Doors Projects' Hub Project Manager, Honduras/Germany).

Open Doors is a Locarno Film Festival initiative, organized from the outset jointly with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).