Festival 2020 | Second Act
From 05 to 08 November 2020
Something possibile
otherwise
I will suffocate.
Gilles Deleuze
27th October 2020
We have resisted and will continue to do so. But contexts change and so do ways of resisting.
Carefully planned and defined for May 2020, this edition of Festival ORLANDO has been transformed, modified, reprogrammed, and rebuilt several times due to the health emergency.
With each evolution, it has been enriched with innovative ways to be close to the community, including the new online experience of Orlando Shorts in May 2020, the exciting performances in August throughout the city, one event in the courtyard of the Palazzo della Provincia in September and the art workshops that ended on Sunday 25 October. Everything with caution, extreme care, the desire to recover the pleasure in our lives, to bring back attention to bodies, to relationships.
In November, in a few days' time, we should have added a new chapter of cinema and performance, officially presented on October 20th and immediately afterwards reworked, with further commitment and effort of flexibility, to allow its enjoyment despite the curfew imposed by the Lombardy Region.
Now, in the context further changed by the decision to shut cinemas and theatres despite all the statistics deeming them as safe spaces, the possible ways for us have been reduced to suspension.
Now, in the context further changed by the decision to shut cinemas and theatres despite all the statistics deeming them as safe spaces, the possible ways for us have been reduced to suspension.
Aware of the complex health situation, of the many wounds of our territory and also of the many contradictions of this historical moment, we believe that it is of no use to go online at this time, making bodies and relationships missing. We choose to suspend the last activities of this edition, waiting to meet physically in the spaces of cinema and theatre, while we continue to build subtle revolutions together with you.
As a choice of cultural policy commitment, although the situation is not easy for us at all, we will not fail to provide financial support to the artists and workers involved, in the belief that it is essential to sustain those who work in a sector that has been hit by a tough economic crisis as never before. We can do this thanks to the partner organisations, institutions, and foundations that in turn support us, believing that culture is the key to freedom.
With all the staff and volunteers who were ready to meet you in the Auditorium and in the Festival spaces, we relaunch the next edition: we will continue to dance on the contradictions, working from now on with even more creativity and commitment on the future. Because culture is a necessity and not just a leisure, an irreplaceable antidote for well-being and social cohesion.
We always keep open to dialogue with you: you can contact us by writing to info@orlandofestival.it or on our social channels.
There is so much freedom to achieve!
The artistic direction and all the staff of Festival ORLANDO
ORLANDO is an international queer festival that features cinema, dance and theatre. It is addressed towards a broad, varied audience and characterized by its ironic, inclusive and welcoming approach.
Our aim is to experience culture, overcome borders by broadening possibilities of expression and knowledge through multiple visions of reality. We want to raise a generation that is more liberated, and dream of a society that is more sensitive to equal opportunities, minority rights, gender violence and widen the possibilities of expression. We want a society that is brave and willing to explore otherness.
During the course of nine days we bring valuable artistic experiences to Bergamo by transforming the city through a rich programme of films, shows, encounters, workshops and events thanks to our network of relations, cultural exchanges as well as national and international partnerships.
The Festival and the association are named after Virginia Woolf’s novel. Her work clearly proves how cultural, gender, ethnic and affective orientation differences are indispensable to establish a cultural identity that is plural, alive and constantly transforming.
STAFF AND CONTACTS
ARTISTIC DIRECTION
Mauro Danesi
organizzazione@orlandofestival.it
EXECUTIVE OFFICE
Efrem Foglia
Caterina Sartor
info@orlandofestival.it
PROGRAMMING COMITTEE
Marco Rizzoli
Martina Fiorellino
Stefano Guerini Rocco
Roberto Occhio
Simona Rota
programme@orlandofestival.it
COMMUNICATIONS and SOCIAL MEDIA
Mauro Danesi
Giorgia Di Giusto
Efrem Foglia
TECNICAL DIRECTOR
Simone Moretti
ADMINISTRATION
Roberto Occhio
PRESS OFFICE
Simona Rota
GRAPHIC PROJECT
Barbara Boiocchi
ILLUSTRATION
Collettivo EBLTZ
VIDEO PRODUCTIONS
Alberto Valtellina
TRANSLATIONS
Silvia Giordano
STAGE
Giorgio Grasso
MERCHANDISING
Andrea Buelli
Mauro Brembilla
Dario Carta
Monica Donadoni
Marco Maffi
Jacopo Lazzari
Donatella Rota
ORLANDO DREAMS GREEN
Pleasure is a Human Right. Be pleasure. Be right.
Thanks to the European project Green Fest, the Municipality of Bergamo has defined the parameters of environmental sustainability for cultural events in our city and, along with Anci Lombardia, it promotes the Green Friendly Event label. From the 2020 edition, we will join the initiative as an active player towards building an eco-sustainable future, which will be able to improve people’s quality of life. We will contribute through small practices:
- We will be choosing locations accessible by public transport;
- We are trying to reduce the use of paper in favour of digital;
- We are proposing gadgets with low environmental impact;
...This and much more is necessary to set a change in motion.
NETWORK
EFFE Festivals for Europe, Europe for Festivals
The EFFE Label is Europe’s quality stamp for remarkable arts festivals showing their engagement in the field of the arts, community involvement and international openness.
These festivals are deeply-rooted in the European artistic, cultural and social reality as well as:
- presenting a coherent and curated artistic programme;
- supporting on-going artistic development (offering residencies to artists, contributing to new creations, and supporting artistic research);
- providing opportunities for upcoming or innovative artists;
- being rooted in its local community fostering local connections in the programme and among the performers/ performances;
- helping to increase access to culture and attract diverse audiences;
- taking measures to be more sustainable. This can refer to environment, economics, business models, and social impacts;
- helping to shape, encourage and promote intercultural experiences for your audiences and artists;
- embracing inclusivity as a core principle and practice;
- investing in innovation and capacity building;
- engaging with audiences through educational programmes.
Coordination activities of Italian LGBTQ Film Festivals
In 2018, a Coordination of Italian LGBTQ Film Festivals was established. For the first time, in a thirty-year cultural history, nine national festivals in the sector have decided to work alongside to jointly design mutual support actions, to be developed through the network in the near future. An unprecedented Coordination Board in Italy, able to develop shared objectives and projects, while maintaining the autonomy of the subjects that are part of it. The festivals that have joined the Coordination Board to date are:
Bari International Gender Film Festival – Bari | Florence Queer Festival – Firenze | Gender Bender – Bologna | Festival Mix Milano – Milano | Immaginaria International Film Festival of Lesbians & Other Rebellious Women – Roma | Orlando Identità Relazioni Possibilità – Bergamo | Sardinia Queer Film Festival – Cagliari | Sicilia Queer filmfest – Palermo | Some Prefer Cake Bologna Lesbian Film Festival – Bologna
They are entities and organizations with different stories and background. However, they share a vision of cultural action and a constant commitment to ensuring that film culture continues to be enriched with stories. The events and characters of that diverse world which revolves around differences linked to sexual orientation and gender identity. Over the years this process has been able to confront the changes of society by broadening its gaze towards new cinematographic territories, expressions of heterodox positions, the transversal, the unconventional as well as new forms of poetics and language.
The Coordinating Board’s Festivals feel the need to reflect together on these changes, in order to lay the foundations of a new project for the future and be more effective in finding possible answers to the needs of our communities and new audiences, as well as those of all the directors involved in the entire system of film production and distribution.