Apply to CAFx’ Film Mosaic x 2024 Leave No One Behind Fellowship Programme and get the chance to produce your own film on bio-inclusive design solutions in the built, grown, and planned environment.

The project offers an opportunity to develop your skills within filmmaking and spatial exploration through a series of workshops guided by professional mentors and lecturers. The final films will be presented in Copenhagen and Tbilisi, where you will have the chance to show your work to a wide audience and engage in an international network of creatives.

The Fellowship Programme provides funding and mentorship for the production of films and covers the expenses for travel and accommodation for the premiere in Tbilisi, Georgia. Read more about the project and how to apply below.

Application Deadline:
11 December, 2023

Dates:
1 February 2024 – 24 March 2024
(Workshops taking place in weekends)

Place:
CAFx, Halmtorvet 27, 1700 Copenhagen V

Screenings:
10-14 April 2024 in Tbilisi, Georgia
23-25 May 2024 in Copenhagen, Denmark

About the Film Mosaic 2024 Fellowship

Copenhagen Architecture Festival (CAFx) has teamed up with partners Tbilisi Architecture Biennale, Nushi Film, Queer Art Fest Baku, and Pink Armenia to organise the film & architecture project, Film Mosaic x 2024: Leave No One Behind across Denmark, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia focusing on socially and ecologically inclusive design. You can now apply to become part of CAFx’ fellowship programme in the Spring of 2024 in Copenhagen.

Pressed by the urgencies exposed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, CAFx has chosen to investigate the role architecture and design can play in reducing inequality in all its forms and fulfilling the UN’s commitment to ‘Leave No One Behind’ (LNOB). Bridging education, digital media, and creative labour and youth culture, the project facilitates the production and exchange of knowledge using film to explore social and environmental justice in the capital cities of Georgia, Denmark, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Five fellows working with film and spatial issues will be selected in each country to partake in the Film Mosaic Fellowship Programme, which will provide funding and mentorship for the production of films about pressing issues of the city in question. Participants will travel across countries, learning from each other and disseminating their work. In total four groups of five fellows each (one group in each country) will explore their city in depth and investigate local socio-ecological challenges, with a focus on bio-inclusivity in Tbilisi and Copenhagen, and LGBTQI+ rights and queer theory in Baku and Yerevan.

In Copenhagen the fellowship investigates urban ecosystems, sustainable resources, and cross-species equality in the built, grown and planned environment. Participants will seek positive design solutions within the theme of bio-inclusivity and produce individual short films of maximum 13 minutes that synthesise the results of their research and communicate it artistically and effectively.

Who can apply?

The fellowship programme is open to anyone with a passion for social and environmental justice and experience in relevant fields such as filmmaking, architecture, and planning. The long workshop format caters to young, driven creatives who would like to expand their knowledge and practice across disciplines.

Applicants are expected to have a basic knowledge of film production and access to relevant equipment for shooting and editing.

What to expect?

Over the course of seven weeks we will conduct a series of weekend workshops and lectures to learn about the thematic scope and how to use the medium of film to address it. This includes time for feedback on ideas and the films in production. In between workshops, we expect the fellows to work on their films and finalise them by the beginning of April 2024 before their public premieres in Georgia and Copenhagen, after which the films will be made available on CAFx' online Film Mosaic platform.

By connecting with other like-minded emerging or trained professionals, fellows will gain exposure to different cultures, perspectives, and ways of thinking, which can inform and enrich their creative work. The international network built through the Film Mosaic x 2024 also represents a great opportunity for career development.

Networking with international partners and organisations will help participants discover new possibilities for collaborations and ways to showcase their work to a broader international audience, expand their horizons, build their skills, and open doors to new and exciting possibilities.

All fellows will receive a stipend of 15.000 DKK + travel and accommodation for the premiere in Tbilisi, Georgia.

How to apply?

To apply for the fellowship in Copenhagen please forward a motivation letter and a short biography of max 1 page + CV / a brief portfolio no later than 11 December 2023 to summerschool@cafx.dk. After the deadline, CAFx will select five fellows and get back to all applicants within two weeks.

All  applicants must be able to attend the workshops in person.

Fellows will be selected on the basis of skills, motivation, and interest in the topics addressed. To apply for fellowships with Tbilisi Architecture Biennale, Queer Art Fest or Pink Armenia, please refer to their respective websites for further details.

If you have any questions, please forward them to summerschool@cafx.dk.

Workshop Programme

Through lectures, workshops, and group exercises, you will learn about the potential of architecture and design to further the LNOB agenda, and apply this knowledge to create your own film documenting or addressing non-discriminatory design solutions found in the built, grown, and/or planned environment of Copenhagen.

During the fellowship, you will explore the process of filmmaking, gaining concrete knowledge about conceptualising, organising, filming and editing your work, as well as creating a relevant, dramaturgically well-functioning story. Professional filmmakers and editors will instruct you and assist you in the production of your short film.

The first part of the Fellowship programme will be devoted to on-site research, online and offline meetings and spatial exercises aimed at expanding participants’ knowledge of the urban issues at stake and of possible architectural solutions to these issues. From here, participants will have to choose a topic for their individual film and develop a compelling storyline.

A series of physical workshops will be arranged in each country during the programme to guide them in this process. Two plenary digital workshops will be planned for participants from all countries to meet online, share ideas, chat, exchange knowledge, follow each other's work and give each other feedback. Lastly, they will be shooting and editing their films, supported by a professional editor.

Spring 2024 will be dedicated to the physical exchange between countries and the dissemination of participants’ work across borders. Public premiere events of the films will be organised in each country. These will be opportunities to spread the knowledge produced during the Fellowship with local audiences, debate the topics addressed in the films and discuss them with fellows from other partner countries. Only the premieres taking place in Georgia and Denmark will be attended by project participants from all countries, because of the travel bans in effect between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

After these in-person activities, the Film Mosaic 2024: Leave No One Behind will continue its life in the digital realm. All the films and other relevant material about inclusive and sustainable urbanism produced throughout the project will be made accessible online, becoming part of the global Film Mosaic of everyday voices from different geographical and cultural contexts, available for researchers, educators, laymen and decision-makers.

Background – Furthering the LNOB agenda

The Leave No One Behind (LNOB) agenda is the central, transforming promise in the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It represents the unequivocal commitment of all UN Member States to eradicate poverty in all its forms, end discrimination and exclusion, and reduce the inequalities and vulnerabilities that undermine the living conditions of humans and more-than-human beings.

Discrimination and exclusion persist in the design of our environment, indoors, outdoors, public and private. This includes discrimination against socially, physically or mentally vulnerable or stigmatised groups based on gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, mobility or income.

The question of social justice is not distinct from that of environmental justice. Historically, colonial oppression and imperialist expansion aimed at exploiting human and natural resources, reinforcing racism, discrimination and inequality, and destroying natural ecosystems for profit. Today, in cities all around the globe, already marginalised groups largely living in areas with lower air quality, less green spaces, scarce clean water and contaminated soil, are more exposed to the physical and psychological effects of unsustainable urbanisation. Furthermore, it is known that the less wealthy countries in the world, where resources and infrastructure are not democratically distributed, are already experiencing the disastrous effects of climate change.

The Film Mosaic Fellowship Programme in Copenhagen

How do we achieve more diverse and sustainable neighbourhoods? How do we grow and forage food in urban space? How can material infrastructure promote biodiversity in the city? How can urban planning encourage green mobility and reduce air pollution? How can waste and trash be transformed into viable resources?

Indeed, we are progressively gaining awareness of how the way we plan our cities, build our homes and design our public spaces impacts not only the everyday lives of people and communities but also the biosphere, heavily damaged by unsustainable human activity.

The 2023 World Congress of the International Union of Architects held in Copenhagen was centred around the potential of architecture and urban planning to tackle major socio-ecological challenges such as food supply, access to housing, flood management, energy production, and biodiversity protection, insisting on the need to promote architectural practices that respond to these challenges.

In the Film Mosaic 2024, Copenhagen becomes a laboratory for investigating environmentally ethical spatial practices that place inclusivity in an ecological context; a place to experiment with the city itself as a regenerative ecosystem. More and more, young architects, designers and planners are collaborating with researchers, activists, environmentalists, and natural scientists to develop more inclusive cities and landscapes. Much of the action taken to promote bio-inclusivity happens on a smaller scale, in cities, suburbs or rural areas through simple designs and interventions that are mindful of their context and life cycle.

The Film Mosaic aims to document these solutions, creating an understanding of the diversity of the reality in which the LNOB agenda must be resolved. Ultimately, the collection of films will help promote the fight against inequality by presenting new ideas and insights about sustainable cities, landscapes, buildings, materials, resources, infrastructure, and other spatial features.

Film & Architecture

Building on our experience with hosting film and architecture workshops since 2016, using architecture and film as a lens to investigate themes of inclusivity, gender and ecology carries multiple positive advantages. Architecture allows for discussions of the most relevant social and environmental questions of today by examining their material and spatial implications for people and other living beings. Film represents an excellent medium to explore and communicate these questions effectively, artistically and across geographical borders. Furthermore, it is an efficacious visual tool to begin fundamental conversations about current politics, cultural transformation and environmental futures among people from different localities.

Ultimately, the intersection of architecture and film provides an exciting opportunity to expand knowledge and understanding in both fields and to create more thoughtful and engaging works that explore the complex relationships between people and their environment. By incorporating spatial theory into documentary filmmaking, filmmakers can create works that delve deeper into the cultural and societal implications of a place. Conversely, architects can benefit from exploring the use of film in their work, as it allows them to communicate their investigations and designs in a more sensuous way, beyond diagrams, drawings and renderings.

Partner bios

Copenhagen Architecture Festival (CAFx) is Scandinavia’s largest annual architecture festival with an exhibition and event space in central Copenhagen. Established in 2014, CAFx depicts visions, conflicts and historical transformations in the built environment. Its projects always focus on the socio-political and environmental dimensions of architecture and urbanism, exploring and communicating how building and planning are products of politics and ideals that frame our behaviour and impact our planet. Since 2021, many of its efforts have revolved around the United Nations’ Agenda for Sustainable Development and the “Leave No One Behind” commitment, supporting social and ecological sustainability.

Tbilisi Architecture Biennial (TAB) was founded in 2017 in a city historically notorious for possessing relative artistic freedom within the authoritarian framework of the Soviet Union. Building on this legacy, on a biannual basis TAB gathers professionals from diverse disciplines, policy makers, stakeholders and the local public to critically discuss a topic connected to architecture and urban issues. The activities of TAB between 2023 and 2024 focus on the nexus between architecture and nature, sustainable resources and ecological urban practices.

Queer Art Fest (QAF) is born from Nafas LGBTI Azerbaijan Alliance, the only association advocating for the human rights of LGBTI + people in this country. Since 2020, QAF works to create a safe platform for queer Azeri artists and creatives to express themselves and spread their work without fear of repercussions, support each other and network. Moved by a strong socio-political impulse, many of QAF’s initiatives take urban questions as their starting point and give visibility to the experiences of vulnerable minorities, shedding light on the intersection between gender identity and race, health and economic status.

Pink Armenia (PA) is an Armenian LGBT+ community-based organisation. PA was founded in 2007 to create a safe space for LGBTQI+ people and achieve equality before the law. PA works towards resolving the unique challenges and types of discrimination that LGBTQ+ people face in Armenian society. Ít carries out capacity building and enhancement activities, provides safe spaces and resource centres, as well as a full package of helping services to LGBTQ+ people, conducting fact-based communications and advocacy on national and regional levels. It operates from Yerevan, Capital and has offices in different regions of Armenia. Moreover, PA carries out activities related to LBTQ+ women's issues to promote gender equality and address discrimination and violence.
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The project has been generously funded by the New Democracy Fund with whom CAFx also collaborated on the first iteration of the project 'Film Mosaic x 2023: Leave No One Behind.'

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