Cinema meets education: First edition of the "Lúmina" film festival in Ecuador

Over six days, audiences were treated to a free programme featuring an international selection of films exploring various aspects of contemporary education. These included ‘Puan’ (Argentina), ‘Nous étudiants!’ (Ivory Coast), ‘Runa Simi’ (Peru), ‘The Counted Out’ (Kenya), ‘Château Rouge’ (France) and ‘The Brink of Dreams’ (Egypt).

Each film opened up a thematic universe: from debates about public universities and critical thinking to struggles for gender equality, indigenous languages and community-based forms of learning. The programme was structured as a map of diverse educational experiences, in which cinema acts as a mirror, a denunciation and a possibility for change.

In addition to the film screenings, Lúmina focused on a participatory format with forums and discussions with experts, educators and filmmakers.

The topics addressed included:

• Public higher education and its role in reducing social inequalities.
• Education as a tool for women's empowerment, with an emphasis on experiences in Africa and Latin America.
• Mathematics as a language for life, and its potential for developing critical thinking from an early age.
• The connections between cinema, adult education and political education New visual teaching methods in digital environments. The films provided a starting point for discussions about the challenges faced by educational institutions and learning communities in different cultural contexts.

In each session, the films were a starting point for honest conversations about the challenges faced by educational institutions and learning communities in different cultural contexts.

The opening of the festival exhibition at the National Cinematheque of Ecuador in Quito and the screenings at the Sala Sur of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) set the tone for this first edition: a diverse and open intergenerational gathering that promoted free access to cinema and shared reflection.

In Guayaquil, the screenings replicated this community spirit, bringing together young audiences, teachers and cultural groups interested in cinema as an educational tool, who gathered at the MZ14 Cinema Hall of the University of the Arts (UArtes).

Lúmina symbolises ‘the light that allows us to see learning from new perspectives’ and seeks to establish itself as a platform for encounters between cinema and education, connecting experiences from Latin America, Africa and Europe, regions where DVV International develops education projects for young people and adults.