R/R Café is a new initiative of the Ad Arte Foundation from Poznań, accompanying the Short Waves Festival, which is both an R&D laboratory, a conceptual café and a safe space for dialogue. The name R/R Café directly refers to the slogan of this year's 15th edition of SWF - Rethink/Rebuild, understood as process, method and task. The question of how to commodify the future while respecting diverse sensibilities and forms of coexistence. Openness to change and the courage to co-create it. R/R is also a reference to rest and recuperation, an approach that emphasizes that positive, uplifting changes are achieved first and foremost by taking care of one's own well-being, collective development and healthy relationships within the community.
The first installment of R/R Café will be the Breaking New Ground in Film Curating event, a two-day workshop that will culminate in a panel discussion open to the public. It will be led by Suzy Gillett - a British curator, festival producer, screenwriter, director and film consultant with over 30 years of experience. Those invited to participate in the workshop will represent diverse areas of film culture, both from the audience and talent development side. Based on active mutual education through the exchange of opinions and experiences, they will look at issues related to event programming and organizing film festivals, and develop practices and strategies leading to the formation of sustainable, ethical models of activities in the future. Together they will consider:
● How to skillfully negotiate between filmmakers and audiences? How to design the experience of such exchanges, also how to harness the energy from them?
● How to change the approach to programming events and festivals in the face of shrinking cultural budgets and a growing precariat among those responsible for sustaining culture?
● What areas of programming have been ignored or overlooked so far, what lessons can be learned and what can be changed in the new approach?
● How to build long-term partnerships and how to use the associated resources and circumstances wisely?
The workshop will conclude with an open panel discussion in a hybrid format - live and streamed online on Facebook and YouTube platforms - that will allow our guests to share their conclusions and proposed solutions and discuss them with the audience.
Organiser: Ad Arte Foundation, Short Waves Festival
Funding: Creative Europe MEDIA, City of Poznań, British Council