Ferrara, where the world of journalism and culture meets from 4 to 6 October

ROMA – New prospects for peace. This is the theme at the center of the eighteenth edition of International in Ferrarathe journalism festival organized by Internationalthe weekly magazine, directed by Giovanni De Mauro, who has been bringing the best of the foreign press to Italy for over 30 years, and by the Municipality of Ferrara. From 4 to 6 October the world of journalism and culture meets in Ferrara to discuss and reflect on the major issues of current affairs: from civil rights to technology, from the environment to new geopolitical scenarios. Journalists and reporters, intellectuals and writers will come from all over the world to meet and share points of view and perspectives. Over 150 guests from 26 countries for 3 days of completely free debates, meetings, reviews and shows. And peace is also in the logo of the event: for 2024, the world designed as every year by the illustrator Anna Keen he holds a flag with a white dove in his hands.

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Zerocalcare at the festival. And the meeting between the designer Zerocalcare and the director and screenwriter Alice Rohrwacher will be dedicated to the search for new points of balance. Two very distant imaginaries which however find a meeting point in the attempt to talk about the contemporary world, its contradictions and fracture points, starting from the margins, with a gaze that is both naive and ironic but also disenchanted and critical. From this approach will arise a reflection on the limits of our society and the conflicts that it generates, from those fought with weapons, to social ones, to those against the environment and against more sustainable lifestyles.

The preview. Also this year the festival will open with a preview in collaboration with Ferrara under the stars. Appointment on the evening of Thursday 3 October at the Teatro Comunale, where Einstürzende Neubauten, the Berlin group counted among the greatest and most original innovators of experimental rock, will perform.

Guest portraits. The section Portraitwhich every week in the magazine delves into the story of a character, arrives in Ferrara. With the stories of Fátima Muriel Silva, Colombian activist, defender of women’s and gender rights in Putamayo, one of the regions of Colombia most affected by the armed conflict, and Tunde Onakoya, a Nigerian chess player and activist who fights to support the education of African children from poor communities using the game of chess as pedagogical tool.

Contemporary geopolitics. At Internazionale in Ferrara we will return to talking about Russia with Mikhail Zygar, Russian-American journalist, writer and director as well as the founder and editor-in-chief of Russia’s only independent television channel, Dozhd/TVRain. The Ukrainian perspective, resistance, military mobilization and the construction of a new collective and national identity two and a half years after the start of the war will be discussed with the Ukrainian writer Andrei Kurkov.

Argentina and North Korea. With its president, Javier Milei, at the center of the talk by the journalist and writer, Martín Caparrós. But also North Korea with John Delury, American professor who teaches Chinese studies at Yonsei University in Seoul and Barbara Demick, journalist of Los Angeles Times and author of the volume The Buddha Eaters (Hyperborea 2024).

Chinese. Wang Hui, a Chinese professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, an expert in Chinese literature and intellectual history, will speak about China to reflect on the changing balance of power in the world.

The USA. And then the United States to talk about student movements and new youth activism, the impact they could have on the next US electoral campaign, in particular on the left.

Politics and Marxism. And again, politics and Marxism will be discussed with Kohei Saito, Japanese philosopher who overturned the interpretation of Marx’s doctrine from an ecological perspective and Astra Taylor, Canadian-American director and writer. The director of Internazionale Giovanni De Mauro and the historian Giuliano Milani will speak at the meeting.

L’Islam. Resistances will then be discussed with Olivier Roy French political science professor and leading expert on Islam and Adam Shatz, journalist of London Review of Books. There will be a moment of in-depth analysis of Gaza through the stories of resisters, victims and witnesses of the conflict told by those who lived and worked in that territory, with Youmna ElSayed, Palestinian Egyptian journalist, Palestinian illustrator, Malak Mattar e Ruba Salih of the University of Bologna.

Israel, 7 October. We will talk again about Israel and Palestine, one year after the October 7 massacre which brought months of war and destruction to Gaza, with Amira Hass, Israeli writer and journalist of the newspaper Haaretz.

Human rights. The partnership with is renewed for this edition too Doctors Without Borders, who will also bring their testimony on the drama of Gaza to the festival e will allow the public, thanks to the presence of an installation, to experience the reality of those who work every day in emergency situations. The guided tour of another installation, that of the street artist Alice Pasquini, again in collaboration with Doctors Without Borders, instead, it will tell the stories of civilians and healthcare workers affected in five different wars, from Ukraine to Sudan.

Feminisms. A International in Ferraralike every year, we will talk about feminism also starting from a discussion on aesthetic categories with the German artist of Afghan origin Moshtari Hilal, author of Ugliness (Fandango 2024).

A century of migrations. We also return to talking about migrations in the meeting built starting from Gabriele Del Grande’s latest book “The Mobile Century” (Mondadori), with archive photos and videos from an entire century to try to tell the story of migration seen from the future, with a multimedia monologue edited by the author.

The new cities. Cities, their prospects and the great challenges of contemporary urban planning: at Internazionale in Ferrara we will also talk about new ways of living, urban policies, environment and sustainability. From the “Vienna case”, a model city throughout Europe for social housing, to the energy impact of buildings, up to the critical analysis of the relationship between rights, subjects and spaces to explore the city in its ambivalent matrix as an instrument of discrimination or inclusion.

Environment and sustainability. There will be a reflection on the environment in the meeting in collaboration with the Spitin which the Colombian lawyer and indigenous leader Cesar Wilinton Chapal Quenama and Catherine Yortady Figueroa Cadena, Colombian indigenous leader, deputy director of the association that defends indigenous rights and coordinator of sustainable projects for indigenous communities in Putumayo will speak.

Artificial Intelligence and Science. Many meetings to explore the limits and potential of artificial intelligence, from the one organized in collaboration with Dg Connect, with Roberto Viola, director general for digital policies of the European Commission, to the projection of Life is a Game, the filmmaker’s documentary Luca Quagliato e by the Irpimedia journalist Laura Street on the impact that this new form of economy based on gamification of work has, not only on the daily lives of the people involved, but also on urban geography.

The books at Internazionale in Ferrara. Appointment with Daria Bignardi, journalist and writer, who will present her latest book, Every prison is an island (Mondadori), a narrative in isolation and prisons told through stories and testimonies of the protagonists, in dialogue with the singer-songwriter Vasco Brondi. The event will be in collaboration with Unipol Gruppo. Also poetry at the festival with Joëlle Sambi, Belgian-Congolese author, LGBTQIA+ activist and poet, a meeting introduced by the translator and journalist Francesca Spinelli.

Music and art. There will be no shortage of moments dedicated to music with Teho Teardo, musician and composer together with Giovanni Ansaldo, journalist by Internationaland to art with an exhibition of works by artists from Ferrara and Modena between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries which will meet the museum’s permanent collection.

Workshops, exhibitions and Mondovisioni. Workshops also return with the Internazionale festival in Ferrara. In fact, 10 workshops on journalism, comics, podcasts and technology will be held at the University of Ferrara. International exhibitions are also present Mondovisioni – with many documentaries on current affairs, human rights and information, edited by CineAgenzia in collaboration with Internazionale and in collaboration with Coop Alleanza 3.0 – and Mondoascolti – the review of audio documentaries curated by Jonathan Zenti and created thanks to the contribution of Fandango podcast.

Useful information. All meetings are free, the spaces are free of architectural barriers and can be reached on foot or by bicycle. For all the details and information on the festival and to discover the programme, consult the site.