The Summer School intends to be an advanced course of new practices of cinema, combining a critical thought with the contact with great creators of film and contemporary art. The diversity of procedural approaches, as well as the decisive themes of the present world, will be presented by directors/artists of great international relevance, assisted by thinkers, critics and academics who will discuss the work developed during the week. The Summer School is structured in six days, and each day is dedicated to one of the directors/artists who, at different times and with different structures, will be in direct contact with the participants, in a creative and informal environment.

Besides the workshops, the Summer School has also an open program, mostly comprised of screenings and exhibitions openings from the directors or artists present in Porto. This program is offered to the city and its lively cultural audience.

For one week, guests and participants will unfold how modes of “Survivance” can produce creative forms for subverting violence in challenging times of severe sociopolitical and ecological injustice. Moreover, “Survivance,” as coined by Native American scholar Gerald Vizenor, will be discussed from the perspective of the ones often unaccounted for or ignored, both then and now, the colonized peoples whose rejection of victimry is articulated with gestures of empowerment through art, politics and collective practices. We propose operating the various meanings of this concept in our shared present and address the paradigm shift of geopolitics, recognizing the worlds within our world and bringing forward the learning with communities from places such as Australia, South America, and Africa.