The world’s top journalists gather for Internazionale a Ferrara

Unusually for this blog, we’re urging you to visit a different city to Rimini this weekend – albeit one that’s easily reached from Rimini and a perfect day-trip, Ferrara. Why? Because one of the best run and thought-provoking festivals in Italy (and perhaps Europe) takes place there this weekend – Internazionale a Ferrara.

The festival is run by Italian progressive magazine Internazionale, a weekly publication that reprints the best of the international press translated into Italian, alongside original articles, cartoons, and editorials. The magazine regularly features the likes of Loretta Napoleoni, Noam Chomsky, Amira Haas, John Berger, and Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, amongst many others.

For the third year running the magazine is holding a three day festival in the beautiful town of Ferrara (just an hour-and-a-half from Rimini via Bologna), where you can get to hear some of the finest journalists in the world speak. A small list of highlights:

Friday 2nd October
Citizen Jouralism – information in the Youtube era a talk by David Randall, senior editor of the Independent on Sunday

Mexico, the new frontier of narcotraffic a panel discussion with Mexican novelist Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez, Adela Navarro Bello (Editor of Mexican Weekly Zeta, Diana Washington Valdez (journalist for the El Paso Times, and Carlo Bonino (Journalist from Italian daily La Repubblica)

Iceland – a paradise bankrupt – a panel discussion with Alda Sigmunsdottir (Icelandic blogger), Andri Snaer Magnason (author of Dreamland, a self help manual for a frightened nation), Rebecca Solnit (American author of A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster) and Concita De Gregorio (the editor of Italian daily L’Unita)

Saturday 3rd October
Iran, the coming revolution – a panel discussion with Masoud Behnoud (Iranian journalist), Firouzeh Khosrovani (Iranian Documentary Maker), Petr Lom (Czech author of the documentary Letters to the President), Bijan Zarmandili (Iranian author and journalist), and Paolo Conti (Journalist for the Italian daily Corriere della Sera)

Writing in times of violence – Literature in Sri Lanka, Palestine, and Africa – a panel discussion with Suad Amiry (Palestinian author of Sharon and My Mother-in-law: Ramallah Diaries
), Romesh Gunesekera (Sri Lankan author of Reef
), Abdourahman Waberi (Djibouti author of In the United States of Africa
), and Maria Nadotti (Italian author, essayist and co-editor of Off Screen: Women and Film in Italy

Invisible Documentary – 5 directors for Medici senza frontiere a film by Mariano Barroso, Isabel Coixet, Javier Corcuera, Fernando Leon de Aranoa, and Wim Wenders – presented by Sergio Cecchini

Sunday 4th October
Europe on trial, 1989 -2009, from enthusiasm to scepticism – a panel discussion with Michael Braun (Die Tageszeitung), Eric Jozsef (Liberation), JOsef Kaspar (Tyden), Mircea Vasilescu (Dilema Veche), Thierry Vissol (Spokesperson for the European Commission), and Jacopo Zanchini (Internazionale).

Mafia SpA: business in the time of crisis – a panel discussion with Roberto Saviano (author of Gomorrah: Italy’s Other Mafia, and under police escort due to death threats received from Italian organised crime), Loretta Napolenoi (Italian economist, author of Rogue Economics), Misha Glenny (British journalist, author of The Fall of Yugoslavia: The Third Balkan War) and McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime), and Mario Calabresi (Editor of La Stampa, and the son of Luigi Calabresi, the police commissioner whose murder in 1972 was one of the acts of violence that marked the start of Italy’s terrible anni di piombo)

There are lots of other interesting panels, and film screenings throughout the weekend – for the full program you can visit Internazionale’s site

The beauty of the festival, though, is also that you can get a chance to see the beautiful town of Ferrara, a city with a very special atmosphere. It has a small town centre dominated by a wonderful cathedral, spectacular castle, and bike/pedestrian friendly small streets. If you’re going to the festival, make sure you give yourself extra time to take in the sights!