04.–13.04.2025

THE CITIZEN’S LAB 2.0
Poetic Justice

The Citizen’s Lab, in collaboration with the BFFB, continues its journey of comparisons and hybridizations between languages and practices. Cinema, in particular its places (and the meetings and conversations that this space can host), are a laboratory of active citizenship.

This year’s Lab proposes, for the first time in Italy, a pilot section ‘Poetic Justice’ within the BFFB, curated by Prof. Emanuela Fronza (University of Bologna) in collaboration with the research area “Law, Economics and Institutions” of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Bolzano and with the Euregio platform on human dignity and human rights (EUPHUR)

The “Poetic Justice” section will explore the complex and fascinating relationship between cinema and justice. This initiative is based on the belief that cinema and images are not only tools for representing law and justice, but also powerful vehicles for spreading legal culture in society.

Through visual language, cinema offers a suggestive and effective access to the many faces of law and justice, allowing us to identify its actors - judges, defendants, lawyers, victims, witnesses, law enforcement - and to grasp the power dynamics at play. At the same time, cinema invites us to reflect on the existence and violation of rights, including new generation rights, and on the mechanisms of protection and access to justice, such as class action. The relationship between cinema and justice takes on an even more crucial role in the era of the spectacularization and mediatization of law, in which the collective imagination is often shaped more by its cinematic representation than by actual practice.

“Poetic Justice” proposes, through an interdisciplinary and international approach, meetings and screenings that involve exponents of law, philosophy, politics and art. The aim is to enhance cinema not only as a narrative tool, but also as a public space and a democratic place of debate for the community.

See more Less

11.04.

UNIBZ / ROOM D 1.02

14:00
Greetings and opening talk


14:30 – 16:30

Round Table “Trials on Screen: Between Memory, Truth and Representation”. Chair: Prof. Roberto Farneti (Unibz). Discussants: Prof. Emanuela Fronza (Unibo), Prof. Michela Franceschelli (UCL, London), Prof. Daniela Giannetti (Unibo), Prof. Stefania Parisi (Unina), Prof. Francesco Zucconi (IUAV Venice)

16:30 – 17:00

Coffee break


17:00 – 18:45

Film screening: Peso Morto directed by Francesco del Grosso, 2022, Italy (duration 87 min).


19:00

Round table “Innocenti. Errori giudiziari in Italia”. Chair: Dr Simon Robert (Unibz). Discussants: Angelo Massaro (protagonist of Peso Morto), Francesco del Grosso (director of Peso Morto), Benedetto Lattanzi (journalist), Valentino Massimo (journalist), Cuno Tarfusser (former chief Prosecutor of Milan)

12.04.

UNIBZ / ROOM F 0.03

09:30 – 10:30

Round table “Cinematic Portrayals of Injustice”. Chair: Prof. Emanuela Fronza (Unibo). Discussants: Prof. Francesco Zucconi (IUAV Venice), Prof. Michela Franceschelli (UCL, London), Prof. Pierandrea Amato (University of Messina).

FILMCLUB / CAPITOL 2

11:00 – 13:00

Masterclass “Presunto Culpable (Presumed Guilty): Mexico’s Most-Watched Documentary and Its Fight for Justice”, by Roberto Hernández, with the screening of Presunto Culpable directed by Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith, 2008, Mexico (duration 87 min). Chair: Prof. Emanuela Fronza (Unibo). Discussants: Prof. Daniela Giannetti (Unibo), Prof. Stefania Parisi (Unina).

Free Entry ↑

14:30 – 17:30

Film screening and discussion: Giurato Numero 2, directed by Clint Eastwood, 2024, USA (114 min).