Overview

The Urban Cinema Series, organised by the Doctoral Programme «Cities and Urban Cultures» returns in 2021 with a new online format, proposing to discuss conflicts, transformations and phenomena inherent to the broad problematic of "urban issues".

In this new format, the Series will be divided in two parts: the first, running between April and June, will focus on "Intangible Cities", while the second, scheduled for September, will address the theme of "Cities in Dispute".

The sessions of this first part present a selection of short films, to be screened virtually, followed by a debate. Opening with a session on the "City of Sound", its silences and noises, the series continues with the theme of the "Imagined Cities" and speculates, with futuristic contours, on the urban condition. Finally, it will close with a challenge to the multiplicity of the sensitive from "The City Perceived by Childhood".

Programme

Session1 | Cities of Sound
5 perspectivas sobre o som (PT, 2021, 33 min, 02 seg) by Carlos Alberto Augusto
29 April, 2021, Online event via Zoom, 18h00 (GMT +01:00)

Synopsis: Everything sounds. Nature sounds around us, we sound, machines and cities sound. Sound is vital for our survival, but the balance of our sonorous environment is threatened. Five stories about urban sound, about listening, about the imbalances that threaten the sound environment and what can be done to restore the lost balance.

Comments: Carlos Alberto Augusto (Sound Designer), Carlos Fortuna (FEUC/CES) | Moderator: Cristiano Pacheco (PhD Candidate)

Session 2 | Imagined Cities
Tunnelen (NO; 2016; 14 min 22 seg) by André Øvredal
Hyper-reality (CO; 2010; 6 min 15 seg) by Keiichi Matsuda
27 May, 2021, Online event via Zoom, 18h00 (GMT +01:00)

Synopsis: Based on a short-story by Alice Glaser, Tunnelen is a science fiction film about a future marked by an intense concentration of the urban population. While returnig home, after a day at the beach, a family faces a terrible traffic jam. Ahead of them lies a tunnel they need to go through. .

Synopsis: Hyper-reality presents a new kaleidoscopic and provocative vision of the urban future, where physical and virtual realities merge and the city is saturated by media.

Comments: Ramón del Castillo (UNED) | Moderator: Violeta Rodríguez Becerril (PhD Candidate)

Session 3 | The City Perceived by Childhood
Ciudad Grande (MX; 31 min 24 seg) by Tuline Gülgönen e Ana Álvarez
15 June, 2021, Online event via Zoom, 18h00 (GMT +01:00)

Synopsis: A portrait of Mexico City seen through the eyes of five children of different ages and neighborhoods that reveals the way they perceive and live the city. The documentary emphasizes direct contact with the children.

Comments: Tuline Gülgönen and Ana Álvarez (Director) | Moderator: Carolina Anselmo (PhD Candidate)