Arene Decoloniali

Arene Decoloniali 2025 — the first edition

From September 8 to 14, 2025, the Parco della Torre di Tor Marancia hosted the first edition of Arene Decoloniali, a festival conceived by the Un Ponte Per association to explore, through images, words, and memories, the colonial past and its legacy in the present. The program wove together auteur cinema, literature, and photography in an open dialogue between arts and activism: ten films, documentaries, and short films, six book presentations, two photography exhibitions, and a bilingual Arabic-Italian poetry reading with musical accompaniment.

The two opening evenings were dedicated to a retrospective on Pier Paolo Pasolini, on the fiftieth anniversary of his death, with works that recount his gaze on otherness and in particular his relationship with Africa and the East. Among the titles in the program were «ADWA – An African Victory» by Haile Gerima, on the Ethiopian resistance of 1896, and «L'ordine delle cose» by Andrea Segre. In this edition, the Arene Decoloniali Award was established, assigned to the film capable of bridging the gaps in colonial memory. Admission was free and no booking was required, with films subtitled in Italian and sign language introductions.