What goes on between one edition of Cactus International Children’s and Youth Film Festival and the next?
Easy: Cactus Labs!
Cactus Labs are various initiatives that aim to educate and give the opportunity to meet new people. Created for children, teens, and young adults up to 29 years old, they take place throughout the year.
These practical and theoretical labs are all about stories and the various ways we have of finding, telling and enjoying them: in short, of living them. Whether as sounds, images, acts or words, Cactus Labs deal with different forms of artistic expression. They are also specifically designed for each age group and the interests of the target audience: they start off from within the audience’s comfort zone but aim to go a little further, in order to provide the audience with new skills.
The labs, just like traditional workshops, are physical places where creative activities such as the making of a story or a set can be carried out, alongside experts. Moreover, they are a metaphorical place in which to share with others one’s own cultural experiences and knowledge; a place to discover the value of teamwork and that a team is more than merely the sum of its single parts.
The aim of Cactus Labs is to work in synergy with various local groups, in particular with the voluntary sector, giving great importance to inclusion and the enhancement of the social events that promote cohesiveness. Through this, and thanks to a mutual exchange of strength and stability, we can spread our roots deeper in the area, creating a variety of points of view that will provide new three-dimensional, dynamic, and valuable ideas.
With Cactus Labs, Cactus International Children’s and Youth Film Festival takes another step towards the world we want, a world of cooperation and collaboration, knowing that stories are our way of communicating, that diversity is an asset, and that each and every human being is a valuable resource.
