This year again we have been inspired by the zebra, a zebra in bright and vibrant colours, characterizing the future, because we are increasingly convinced that representing a place in a different way can also contribute to changing its future.
With Where Future Beats we want to tell you about continents, Africa, Asia and Latin America, which follow the rhythm of innovation. Beat like the beating of the heart of countries in transformation, but also like the young “beat” generations of rebels as History has taught us that the revolutions and upheavals arrive today from the South to wake up our Europe.
Where future beats will take various shapes in the Festival, from the photographic exhibition of the same name that the curators of LagosPhoto have selected to remind us that everything has to start again where it all began, i.e. in Africa; to the conversations with the observers of the new political challenges in Latin America in the section Restless Democracies; to the technological innovation that will turn our public’s heads 360° with the first African films in Virtual Reality at the Festival Center, where you will also be able to experiment with new devices and express the value #DifferentisBetter with creativity; to Africa which does not make the headlines but works, that of the communities of start-ups that are inventing a different and encouraging future from the round table on universities and entrepreneurship; to reach at last the film section Where Future Beats, dedicated to the transnational movements of the new African generations in search of identity.
In the films in competition as well, although the most dramatic aspects of reality often dominate, and the directors from the three continents are attentive and sensitive witnesses and interpreters of the difficulties around them, we can see the lucid and global vision of artists who dialogue with a local and international public aware of their role in building up a new future. Because art has always inspired change.
Let the zebra guide you as well, by its original and sincere visions and follow the beat of the Festival with us!
Annamaria Gallone e Alessandra Speciale
Artistic Directors
