Screening of films from the Training School in Tirana and Kamza “The planned, the unplanned, and everything in between”
Six captivating documentary films, crafted during and after the Training School in Tirana and Kamza, – held as a fieldwork event of the COST Action Writing Urban Places in March 2023, – were screened in the well-known international film festival Dokufest in Prizren on August 8th. These films took center stage at the enchanting Kino Lumi outdoor cinema on the 8th of August. Situated atop Prizren’s main river, the Lumbardhi, Kino Lumi offers a welcoming embrace to cinephiles during this splendid festival.
The Training School in Tirana and Kamza, brought together local and international scholars of diverse disciplinary realms, artists, and activists to experiment with psychogeographic walks and ethnographic film as research-creation methods to explore the tension between two concepts, – the planned and the unplanned, aiming to dismantle this dichotomy by looking beyond it. The groups looked into two polarities, on the one hand, Kamza with its autonomous character, and on the other Tirana, the epitome of a perpetual desire for planning and order coming from the top. Echoing this exploration, the tension between the urban center and periphery came to the fore, the way this tension is created, maintained, and even used politically. These topics were addressed in the films that were presented to the local and international public.
As mentioned by the observations made by dokufest reporters, these films contribute to opening up an important discussion surrounding the imperative inclusion of minor voices in the process of transformation of our cities. The discussion is particularly important in the current moment when the cities of Tirana and Kamza navigate rapid transformation pushed by market forces and vertical decision-making, a contemporary juncture that underscores the urgency of these conversations.
The program and synopsis of the films can be found here.
A full report on the training school can be found in this here.
Training School
Tirana and Kamza: The planned, the unplanned, and everything in between
CA18126 – Writing Urban Places. New Narratives of the European City
Organizing team:
Dorina Pllumbi, PhD researcher Technological University of Delft
Diana Malaj, activist Grupi ATA and PhD researcher Graz University
Willie Vogel, architect and researcher Technological University of Delft
Local parties involved:
Grupi ATA, Kamza
IAKSA, Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Art Studies, Albania
Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Polytechnic University of Tirana
Dokufest, Prizren, Kosova
