Interactions: when cinema observes nature

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February 13th, 2025
from 18:30

Campus SUPSI Mendrisio, via Flora Ruchat-Roncati 15 (Materioteca, 1st floor)

The Centre for Development and Cooperation SUPSI and the Competence Centre Climate Change and Territory SUPSI propose 3 short films and a discussion with the well-known director Anne de Carbuccia and Daniel Maselli. An opportunity to explore a more sustainable relationship with animals and our planet.

Photo: still of Refugia by Anne de Carbuccia


In the current context of climate change, it is crucial to look at the relationship between human beings and other living beings. Humans – in their dual role as animals, but at the same time separate from other animals – have historically defined what it means to ‘be human’, specifically in contrast to other living beings.

Exploring the relationship with animals also means raising the possibility of adopting different points of view and forms of interaction. The other is not exclusively our enemy, prey, tool or commodity to be used at will, but an alter ego and a companion.

The topic touches on pressing issues, such as the transformation of our daily lives, the ecosystem, biodiversity, pollution and climate change.

Humans increasingly seem to want to influence nature far beyond their control; it is time to bring to bear the many forms of relationships that can make the connection between the animal world and humanity more evident and investigated.

In 2022, the NGO Art for the World, with the support of the SDC-Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, produced Interactions, a project comprising 12 original short films of about 8 minutes each on the links and interactions between nature, humans, animal life, ecosystems, the environment, climate change and water. Each of these aspects is influenced by behaviours considered essential for the spirit, health and well-being of both: humans and animals. Interactions engages influential filmmakers to increase the reach of disseminating and sharing urgent environmental issues.

Art for The World demonstrates with Interactions that the arts can have an impact to raise awareness and empower viewers to address these issues head-on.

 

Three short films and discussioncon tre cortometraggi e discussione


Co-organised by the Centre for Development and Cooperation SUPSI and the Competence Centre Climate Change and Territory SUPSI, the evening of Thursday 13 February 2025 at 18:30 Interactions: quando il cinema osserva la natura (Interactions: when cinema observes nature) will feature the screening of three short films from the Interactions film project, followed by a discussion open to the public with director Anne de Carbuccia – who has travelled to the most remote places on the planet to document endangered species, habitats and cultures with her art –  and Daniel Maselli of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (the agency of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in charge of international cooperation), moderated by Clara Caverzasio, science popularizer and project manager of the cultural association Trame.

The event, in Italian and free of charge (admission subject to availability), is scheduled for Thursday 13 February 2025 at 18:30 at the Department of environment constructions and design SUPSI in Mendrisio (via Flora Ruchat-Roncati 15) in the Materioteca (first floor).
Final refreshment.


Programme

18:30
Welcome by Claudia Howald (Centre for Development and Cooperation SUPSI)

18:40
Screening of three short films
Queen by Bettina Oberli (Switzerland)
Jungle Fever by Takumã Kuikuro (Amazonia/Brazil)
Refugia by Anne de Carbuccia (France/United States)

19:15
Discussion with Anne de Carbuccia (director of Refugia) and Daniel Maselli (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation) moderated by Clara Caverzasio, science popularizer; followed by debate with the audience

20:15
Refreshment

Following her first short film, Kingdom (Interdependence 2019), this second episode depicts a female shepherd who seeks strength in her encounter with wolves in the high mountains of Switzerland.

Born in Interlaken in 1972, Bettina Oberli lives in Zurich. After the award-winning debut feature Im Nordwind in 2004, her second feature film, Die Herbstzeitlosen in 2006 was seen by more than 600,000 people worldwide. She worked for SRF/ARTE on the two-part television film Private Banking in 2017. In 2018, she directed Le vent tourne, screened at the Locarno Film Festival. Kingdom won Best Director at the Vienna International Film Award in 2020.

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The short film poetically recounts the science of environmental habitats that have supported the survival of organisms for millennia, and how in these times of transition, their protection is crucial for the future. The film takes place in Japan, on the mythical island of Yakushima, where ancestral forests preserve some of the oldest living trees in the world.

Born in New York in 1968, Anne de Carbuccia lives between New York and Milan. She travels to some of the world’s most remote areas to document the threats to our planet and to preserve the memory of endangered environments, species and cultures. InStyle magazine called her one of the ‘50 badass women’ who are changing the world for the better. Her debut short film One Ocean was screened at the 75th Venice International Film Festival and other film festivals around the world. She created the Time Shrine Foundation in the US and the One Planet One Future Association in Italy to raise awareness about climate collapse and man-made threats to the planet.
 

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The short film deals with the struggle of the Xingu tribes of the Amazon trying to save their habitat from fires, to protect their ecosystem and many rare rainforest species.

Born in the indigenous territory of Alto Xingu (Mato Grosso) in 1983, Takumã Kuikuro belongs to the Kuikuro people. He trained through Brazil’s NGO programme ‘Video in the Villages / Video nas Aldeias’. His films have been screened and won awards at festivals such as Gramado Brasília, Presence Autochtone Montreal and the Rotterdam Film Festival. He participated as a resident in the People’s Palace Projects in London in 2015. In 2021 he represented the Xingu indigenous territories at COP26 in Glasgow, where he carried out a series of political and artistic actions.

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He holds a Master’s degree in Biology and a Doctorate in Geography from the University of Bern. He is currently Senior Policy Advisor for the Water Section at the SDC-Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. He previously held the role of Focal Point for the SDC’s Climate Change and Environment Network for more than six years until August 2019 and has since been the Focal Point for the SDC’s Water Network. 

Over the past ten years, he has made special efforts to promote youth, art and culture in international development cooperation with the intention of communicating the triple ecological crisis: climate change, biodiversity loss and water pollution in a different way.
Its focus includes analysing, reflecting and acting on the root problems of development cooperation, while also striving to find effective entry points on how best to trigger systemic change and social transformation, implementing lasting solutions that will lead to true sustainable development and a decent life on Earth for future generations.

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NGO associated with the Department of Public Information of the United Nations. It was founded in 1995 on the 50th anniversary of the United Nations and is based in Geneva and Italy (Turin/Milan) with collaborations in Europe, as well as in Brazil, Canada, India, Mexico, Morocco and the USA. 

As an itinerant institution without walls, Art for the World’s activities are not linked to a defined and permanent space, but to the sense of the initiatives it promotes: a link between the dissemination of contemporary culture and the defence of universal values. This characteristic distinguishes Art for the World on the international scene, turning it into a unique experience. Simultaneously curating art exhibitions and organising the construction of children’s playgrounds all over the world, Art for the World has produced films with independent filmmakers from all continents, who are well known for their artistic talent as well as their commitment to issues concerning humanity and our planet.

Art for the World fuses ethics and aesthetics to build intercultural relations and promote sustainability, culture and education with a large number of cultural projects inspired by the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), such as the travelling contemporary art exhibitions FOOD (2014–2015) and AQUA (2017–2018) and the production of the film anthology Interdependence (2019). Art for the World draws inspiration from Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which proclaims creative activity to be an essential part of people’s well-being and the need to respect pluralism and variety in all kinds of creative expression. 

Interdependence 2019 follows Art for the World’s successful production of Stories on Human Rights, twenty-one short films commissioned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which received the Most Innovative Cultural Project in Europe award in 2008, an honour bestowed by the Council of Europe. In 2010, Art for the World produced a new series of seven short films of 10 minutes each, Then and Now, commissioned by the UN Alliance of Civilisations on freedom of belief (Article 18 of Human Rights).

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Still from Queen by Bettina Oberli

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Still from Jungle Fever by Takumã Kuikuro

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