At CNR ISMAR in Venice, the first Planet Sea Film Lab on biodiversity with smartphones for young people. 10 short films with 20 students from different universities, cities, nations in 5-day art residency to tell why it is important and should be protected.
Web Site “Pianeta Mare Film Lab”
CNR ISMAR, in collaboration with the Biodiversity Gateway of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), with the curatorship of the Pianeta Mare Darwin Dohrn Cultural Association and the Pianeta Mare International Film Festival in Naples, Italy, have created the first Film Lab on Biodiversity with smartphones for young people in Venice from May 12 to 16, on the occasion of the European Year 2025 dedicated to digital citizenship education and the World Day dedicated by the United Nations to Biodiversity on May 22.
The CNR ISMAR – Pianeta Mare Film Festival team for this educational and artistic project, the first of its kind in Italy, selected in recent months 20 students with an average age of 25 years, 70% university students and young female researchers and artists, from different faculties and universities in 7 cities of 4 countries. Among other institutions that supported the project; the Representation in Italy of the European Commission, ISPRA, Film Commission Regione Campania, with the patronage of the City of Venice and Ca’ Foscari University Venice.
On Friday, May 16, for the Cinemattièe organized in Auditorium Tagliapietra CNR ISMAR will be presented and previewed the 10 3-5 minute short films by the Film Lab students that were conceived, written, videotaped by phone, edited in just 4 days and zero budget, with an insignificant footprint when compared to other video production projects and film screenings.
The Cinemattinèe will also be an opportunity to debate with CNR ISMAR researchers and professors, filmmakers, editors, the Film Lab university students and schoolchildren on the importance of trying to tell with the phone the territories we live in and the Biodiversity we are part of and more generally on why this natural capital is fundamental and must be known, preserved and restored with the help of all, for the health of all living beings and us humans in primis, with positive and unexpected social and economic impacts. The morning will end with a glimpse of the world thanks to the screening of two internationally renowned short films premiering in Veneto and awarded at the Pianeta Mare Film Festival Internazionale di Napoli, namely the Indian work Virundhu by Rishi Chadna and the German animated work The Waiting by Volker Schelecht.
The “Pianeta Mare Film Labs” are directed by director and screenwriter Valerio Ferrara, winner at the age of 26 of the Cannes Film Festival’s La Cinef Prize, among 3,000 shorts by first-time directors from around the world, with the work “The Conspiratorial Barber,” an end-of-course short from the National School of Cinema Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, a finalist in competition for the David di Donatello 2023. The editor of the Venice Film Lab is Elisabetta Abrami, who has edited films and documentaries awarded at the David di Donatello and other festivals. The project was presented Mario Sprovieri, director CNR ISMAR, and Max Mizzau Perczel, president Pianeta Mare Darwin Dohrn Cultural Association and director of the Pianeta Mare International Film Festival in Naples. Inspirational testimonies on the biodiversity of Venice were given by Dr. Marco Sigovini (CNR-ISMAR), who delved into the topic of Pinna nobilis in the Venice lagoon, and Dr. Leonardo Ancillotto (CNR-IRET), who illustrated the importance of urban biodiversity.
Objectives: To inspire and train students, with the participation of young people under 30, in the artistic and technical professional use of smartphones for zero-budget video production and in the artistic use of social channels to tell life stories and experiences, good practices of environmental sustainability and virtuous actions of Citizen Science on topics such as biodiversity, climate change and the protection of artistic and natural heritage, inspired by Art. 9 of the Constitution and some of the SDGs Agenda 2030.
STATEMENTS
Mario Sprovieri, Director of the CNR Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR)
“We are excited about the results of the first ‘Planet Sea Film Lab’ on biodiversity, which is being held in Venice from May 12-16, 2025. This initiative, produced in collaboration with the Biodiversity Gateway of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), is a unique opportunity for young people under 30 to explore and narrate urban and lagoon biodiversity through the creative use of smartphones. Our goal is to raise awareness among the younger generation about the importance of biodiversity and the impact of climate change, while promoting good practices and virtuous actions to protect the environment. Urban biodiversity, in particular, plays a crucial role in maintaining local ecosystems and quality of life in cities, providing refuges for wildlife and contributing to environmental resilience. By partnering with the NBFC’s Biodiversity Gateway, we are able to offer an educational and training project that combines art, science and technology, contributing to the building of an aware and active digital citizenship.”
Max Mizzau Perczel, president Pianeta Mare Darwin Dohrn Cultural Association and director Pianeta Mare International Film Festival in Naples
“Thanks to the people of CNR ISMAR, the Biodiversity Gateway Venice branch of the National Biodiversity Future Center who initiated the Pianeta Mare Film Lab in Venice, and the valuable collaboration and sponsorship of ISPRA, City of Venice and Cà Foscari University Venice an opportunity is offered to so many students and young people under 30 to tell their story with the environment, climate change, biodiversity, the report on the impacts caused by humans on the Blue Planet and peace at risk in so many nations. In short, an artistic, educational, formative citizen scientist project that any young person can make with a smartphone, with zero budget, and that helps to understand that there are different ways to watch videos and interact on social channels and that each of us can make a contribution with a smartphone and social channels for the protection of the environment, nature, and peace.”
Valerio Ferrara, director and screenwriter, director Pianeta Mare Film Labs
“The Pianeta Mare Film Lab in Venice is an opportunity to give space and voice to the boys and girls who live the city and the Lagoon of Venice. With their stories and experiences and written shorts, videotaped with their phones and edited in 4 days with zero budget, they will show us something new and original, going to discover a territory, that of the city and the lagoon of Venice, unique for beauty and biodiversity, to tell the urban and naturalistic spaces, with stories of people who stand out for good actions and practices for the environment, to protect and preserve the city, the lagoon and its biodiversity. Mine is an invitation to so many other boys and girls to get involved and use the phone creatively, to make each in their own small way, a difference.”
