Locarno parla italiano – 404!: Glitching Locarno Film Festival
Authors: Silvia Cipelletti & Evelyn Kreutzer
Published on NECSUS, 15 May 2025.
DOI: https://necsus-ejms.org/locarno-parla-italiano-404-glitching-locarno-film-festival/
Published in The Future of Survival, ed. by Kevin B. Lee. Berlin: diaphanes, pp. 115-124, 2025.
DOI: https://www.diaphanes.net/titel/the-future-of-survival-8420
This video essay grew out of an experiment, which took place over the course of half a day during the Locarno Film Festival. The experiment arose from the observation of a particular phenomenon: an apparent disconnect between the international and glamorous atmosphere of the film festival, the cultural and linguistic peculiarity of the festival’s locale, and the small scale of the city of Locarno. From a common lack of Italian subtitles on the big screens, sidelined by the other two Swiss national languages – French and German – to the diverse range of activities in different areas of the city, we repeatedly noticed a strange ‘glitching’ effect – a disconnect between local and global, between languages, and between different demographics on site.