CINEMA SESSIONS
THE STRUGGLE FOR CLEAN WATER
On the 28th of November Utopia500 and the University of Porto promoted a session entitled "The struggle for Clean Water: Sustainability Issues from the Perspective of Women". There was a screening of the documentary "Woman and Water" which was followed by a debate about the lack of access to water and women's struggle in India. The debate was promoted by Utopia500 trainees, Deniz Özdemir and Aylin Talaş.
Women and Water (La Mujer y el agua) / doc / 67'
by Nocem Collado (Greece , 2014)
The documentary focuses on the struggles of women from India, in terms of accessing clean water and various crisis which they are dealing with due to pollution, social inequality and gender discrimination. There will be a small discussion and an open debate about the connections of water safety and gender concepts, in terms of how and why a global crisis may affect women more than the rest of the population.
UTOPIA REVISITED
On June 13th 2019 Nina Licul and Antonia Samaržija, from the Utopia500 team, held a cinema event at the Rectorate of the University of Porto. The film is called Utopia Revisited and, as it sounds, the themes within reflect the rediscovery of a more utopian society. But, what does this mean? The film discussed several different companies and small businesses that are redesigning their business models to obtain a more ecofriendly and sustainable method. Small farms explained a pattern for more profit when their goods where higher quality; realizing that quality does not equal quantity. Many large corporations, though, do not follow this method, breaking the utopian mindset. The film highlighted several large companies that broke the “corporate mold” and started making products with both the workers and consumers in mind. A great example of this is the company that makes Fairphone. Fairphone focuses on fair and equal working conditions for their employees while striving to create a reliable, eco-friendly phone for the consumer. After the film, there was a short but lively discussion. A few people asked questions pertaining to the possibilities of living more sustainably in community based housing and others reflected on the pros and cons of having an eco-friendly phone. Ultimately, this was a very successful and thought provoking event that left viewers reflecting on their own daily living habits.
A(SOCIAL) - 10 DAYS WITHOUT A SMARTPHONE
On the 14th of June 2019, we held our last event with the students of the Secondary School of Valongo in this school term. We got together to watch the movie “(A)social: ten days without a phone”.
It is a documentation about ten Italian adults who use their smart phone on a daily basis. For a period of ten days, their stay in the mountains without their phones is documented. In daily interviews, they reflect on how their behavior and experience changes. All of the participants reported an increase in their subjective wellbeing. After the first days, their need to use their phone disappeared nearly completely.
In the lively discussion we had with the students, it became obvious that everyone was familiar to the problems of smartphone use from their one everyday life. We concluded by sharing our experiences and collecting ideas on how to improve smartphone use.
