BIG – Bari International Gender Festival

Bari's transfeminist festival

The BIG – Bari International Gender Festival is a multidisciplinary event dedicated to cinema and performing arts that investigate gender differences, identities, and sexual orientations. Since its inception in 2015 in the Apulian capital, it has become one of the most original and recognizable cultural events in Southern Italy, attracting prominent names from the national and international art scene to Bari.

Promoted and organized by the AL.I.C.E. Social Cooperative (Alternative Integrate Contro l'Emarginazione), under the artistic direction of Miki Gorizia and Tita Tummillo, the festival spans the city every year between late October and early December, transforming it into a widespread laboratory of thought and performance.

A multidisciplinary program

BIG's offering weaves different languages into a single journey: auteur cinema, contemporary dance, theater, performance art, contemporary art exhibitions, and public discussions. The festival adopts a distinctly intersectional, anti-colonial, and anti-speciesist perspective, placing bodies, relationships, and new narratives at the center.

• Film premieres and international screenings
• Contemporary dance and theater performances
• Visual art exhibitions and installations
• Talks, dialogues, and discussions with artists and activists
• DJ sets and evening events at festival venues

The city as a stage

One of BIG's strongest features is its choice to host events in widespread and unconventional locations throughout Bari: from historic theaters like Teatro Kismet, Teatro Abeliano, and Teatro Kursaal Santalucia, to cultural spaces such as Spazio Murat and Spazio 13, and the Corrado Giaquinto Metropolitan Art Gallery. This choice turns the festival into an urban journey that invites the public to traverse and rediscover the city.

Bari and Puglia

Set in the Municipality of Bari, the capital of the metropolitan city of the same name and the Puglia Region, BIG represents a rare example of a gender-focused festival rooted in the Mezzogiorno. In a region primarily known for seaside tourism and folk traditions, the festival makes a contemporary cultural contribution, opening Bari to international dialogue on identity, rights, and inclusion.