The EU Horizon project PartArt4OW, dedicated to participatory art for society engagement with ocean and water, celebrated a significant milestone yesterday with the premiere of its short documentary, "Blue Kinships. Documenting Ocean Relationships," at the SiciliAmbiente Film Festival 2025 edition. The screening took place on June 17, as part of the festival session focusing on the "Science of the Sea," emphasizing the powerful contribution of visual documentation to research practices.
Organized as a key public engagement activity of PartArt4OW, and in collaboration with the CO>SEA Collaboratorium for the Socio-Environmental Analysis of the Ocean, and Raw-News Visual Production Agency, the documentary's premiere aimed to advance the scientific co-creation of knowledge about the ocean and society. This initiative is designed to raise awareness about critical issues affecting our marine environments through participatory approaches.
SiciliAmbiente, an internationally recognized film festival, is renowned for its dedication to environment, sustainability, and human rights through fiction, documentaries, short films, and animated features. The festival has garnered prestigious accolades, including the "Culture in Green" prize from the Buygreen Forum, positioning it as Italy's leading "green" cultural initiative. Its commitment to fostering meaningful collaborations over traditional sponsorships aligns perfectly with PartArt4OW's community-focused ethos, engaging both local communities and visitors in San Vito Lo Capo. SiciliAmbiente's overarching vision promotes a "culture of sustainability" that integrates social justice with the urgent need for natural resource and ecosystem conservation within a framework of solidarity.
During the festival session, Dr. Chiara Certomà, coordinator of the research projects at Sapienza University of Rome, introduced the activities of the CO>SEA Collaboratorium. Following this, film director Federico Fornaro of Raw-News, alongside video-maker Giuseppe Lupinacci (also from Raw-News), delved into the intricacies and requirements of creating video content for research purposes.
The discussion underscored that visual documentation, encompassing professional and amateur filmmaking and photography, serves as a powerful means for creating transformative knowledge and advancing participatory, engaged, and action-oriented research practices. Through filmmaking, complex ocean geographies are made accessible to a broader audience, stimulating debate and encouraging direct participation in field research. This approach is crucial for overcoming common obstacles in conducting citizen science and participatory research within the ocean environment. Furthermore, video documentation provides a narrative for the entire research process, guiding its direction and serving as a powerful storytelling tool for communication and outreach.
Credits and Accessibility:
"Blue Kinship. Documenting Ocean Relationship" was produced by Raw-News Visual Production Agency as part of the European Horizon project PartArt4OW and the Sapienza Third Mission pilot initiative CoSea_Lab. Both projects, coordinated by Chiara Certomà, are recognized as official activities of the United Nations Ocean Decade.
The documentary "Blue Kinship. Documenting Ocean Relationship" is available for viewing on YouTube and Zenodo. It also serves as supplementary material to the book "Blue Kinships. An Exploration of Society & the Ocean," edited by Chiara Certomà for Palgrave MacMillan, New York 2025.
For more details, interviews, or press inquiries, please contact: Chiara Certomà – chiara.certoma@uniroma1.it; Federico Fornaro – federico.fornaro@raw-news.net.