Film + Debate: The challenge of young foreigners and their integration

WATCH FILM + DEBATE

Thu. 27 Jan, at 11am, at Casa Comum (Rectory of University of Porto) 

Free Entry | No reservation needed

Next Thursday, it’s a day to open up the conversation around a very important theme. What are the biggest difficulties found by foreign students upon their arrival in our country? Would it be the language? Or our culture? How can we help with their integration? Based on the film Bon Voyage, by Fabio Friedli, a small animation that portrays the cruelties and difficulties of the crossings of people looking for a new life in another distant country, we launched the debate (with the contribution of specialized guests) with the intention of reaching answers on how the community can participate in their inclusion.

Paulo Pires do Vale
PNA
Paulo Pires do Vale, professor, essayist and curator, holds a degree and a master’s degree in Philosophy from FCSH, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He teaches at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, at the Department of Architecture at UAL and at the Escola Superior de Educadores de Infância Maria Ulrich, where he coordinates the Post-Graduation in Artistic Practices and Pedagogical Processes. He wrote Everything is something else. Desire in Hegel’s Phenomenology of the Spirit (Colibri, 2006) and countless essays for books, magazines and catalogs for collective and individual exhibitions, in Portugal and abroad, focusing on the relationship between art, education and society. As a curator, the exhibitions Ana Vieira, Muros de Abrigo; Endless tasks. When art and book are limitless; Júlio Pomar, Treatise on the Eyes ;Ana Hatherly and the Baroque; From taking a natural pole, or even Inquiry into the Portuguese portrait. He was part of the jury of prizes such as the AICA Plastic Arts Prize – Ministry of Culture, Architecture, Digital Arts, Plastic Arts, Design and Photography Support Competition of DGArtes or the Scholarship Competitions of the Eugénio de Almeida Foundation. He was a Member of the Group of Consultants of the Directorate-General for the Arts for the selection of the List of Curators invited to present proposals for the Official Representation of Portugal at the 58th Venice Biennale, in 2019. President of AICA-Portugal since 2015.

Fuse (Nuno Teixeira)
Dealema

Fuse, Nuno Teixeira, an artist from one of the oldest Portuguese Hip Hop groups – Dealema. With a career spanning more than 20 years and an extensive collection of edited works, collaborations, stages and projects, Fuse has 4 solo albums, adding to an endless portfolio of participations in works by other artists, not only from the Hip Hop universe, but also in other musical styles, such as collaborations with Holocausto Canibal, A Velha Mecânica, Orelha Negra, Mafalda Veiga, among others. Alongside music, special education became one of the pillars of Nuno Teixeira’s career. It is in 2014 that he begins an important journey at APPC – Associação do Porto de Paralisia Cerebral, where he teaches Multimedia and Creative Writing. In partnership with Câmara do Porto, as part of CriArte Porto, Fuse starts in 2021 the HAPI project – Artistic Skills to Include, where he is present as a trainer in four public schools in Porto, in a mission to rekindle the creativity of students through art, music and multimedia, thus creating a synergy between the Learning Support Centers and the rest of the school community.

Isabel Martins da Silva
Meeru

She discovered the power of living at the service of the community, while animating the Youth Group in the land where she grew up. The study of Law helped her to discover that it is possible to write a more humane history of the world, when the laws are a concrete service to each Person. The postgraduate course in Human Rights made her discover that there are no unique stories and that there are always different ways of contributing to the solution of so many complex problems. In 2016, she stumbled across the pains and dreams of a Syrian refugee family in Portugal. Since then, she has been part of 2 humanitarian missions of the Refugee Support Platform in Greece, in a work of education, empowerment and inclusion of refugees. In 2019, she was one of the founders of the NGDO MEERU | Open Path, in which she is currently Community Director and coordinator of the MEERU Aproxima Project, which aims to promote community cohesion and a sense of belonging for refugee and migrant families living in Portugal. She is a Master’s student in Human Rights at the University of Minho Law School. Determined to make the dreams of the world around her come true, she is always restless, but firm in the certainty that it is possible to live together in equal dignity.

Dr. Fatima Vieira
University of Porto

Fátima Vieira is Vice-Rector for Culture at the University of Porto and Associate Professor with Aggregation at the Faculty of Arts, where she has taught since 1986. Recipient of the Larry E. Hough Award, from the Canadian and American association Society for Utopian Studies, she was President of Utopian Studies Society/Europe between 2006 and 2016. She is Coordinator of the Porto branch of CETAPS/Centre for English, Translation and Anglo-Portuguese Studies, where she leads the research project Mapping Utopianisms.

Daniel Floquet
Student at University of Porto

Daniel Floquet graduated in Letters-Literature from the Federal University of Ceará in 2007, moving on to the Faculty of Letters of the University of Porto (FLUP) in 2008, where he completed a master’s degree in Literary, Cultural and Interart Studies with the dissertation A Pulverização das Dicotomias em Myra, by Maria Velho da Costa. He is currently preparing the doctoral thesis Blood Pulls Blood: Representations of Violence in Maria Velho da Costa and Edna O’Brien, also at FLUP, with the support of a doctoral grant from the Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD) /129705/2017). He is an integrated non-doctoral researcher at the Instituto de Literatura Comparada Margarida Losa (ILCML) and a collaborator at CETAPS, research units linked to the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto. He has experience in teaching as a teacher of Portuguese Language and Literature.

Joana Félix
PNA

Maria Joana de Melo Ferreira Félix was born in Vila Nova de Gaia, in 1969. She graduated in Sports
and Physical Education at the University of Porto in 1992, having completed a Master’s and a PhD in Sports Science at the same University in 1996 and 2002, respectively. Over the years, she has undergone various complementary training in the areas of Dance, the Body in the Scenic Space and Theater. In 1991 she began teaching Physical Education and Dance in public education. In 2002 she also started teaching a Theater and Body Expression Workshop, which she taught until 2018. She created, in 2004, a school theater club, still in operation. She was a professor at the Instituto Universitário da Maia between 2002 and 2012. She is an accredited trainer of Continuing Teacher Training, promoting several Training Workshops and Workshops in the area of ​​Theater Education. She has in her curriculum more than two dozen theater productions, either in co-authorship or solo. In September 2021, she joined the National Arts Plan team, with the role of inter-municipal coordination in the Porto Metropolitan Area, CIM Terras de Trás-os-Montes and CIM Tâmega e Sousa.

The film that inspires this debate, Bon Voyage, by Fabio Friedli, can be seen in the short films BRIDGES & BORDERS (+8 yo) session.

For this debate, IndieJúnior Porto had the collaboration of the PNA and the Rectory of the University of Porto.