27278 - Laboratory (2) (G.B)

Academic Year 2026/2027

  • Teaching Mode: In-person learning (entirely or partially)
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Communication Sciences (cod. 5975)

Learning outcomes

The courses included in the Laboratory 2 are conceived to offer students a direct contact with the professions of communication. The objectives may change according to professional changes in the field of communication.

Course contents

Re-imagining the City.
Video Anthropology Workshop.


“But the city does not tell its past, it contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightning rods, the poles of the flags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls.”

Italo Calvino, *Invisible Cities*.


The workshop will introduce video recording techniques tailored to ethnographic research. Unlike conventional cinema, ethnographic film is driven by social research and dialogic encounters within environmental conditions—regarding light, sound, and social dynamics—that make authorial control difficult and necessitate collaborative, experimental practices. Students will learn the various stages of ethnographic filmmaking while carrying out a complete visual research project.

Participation in the workshop is limited to 20 students.

The workshop is structured into the following units:

(1) Introduction. Anthropology, ethnography, and the ethics of fieldwork.
(2) Anthropology of Images. Film and photography in the documentary tradition.
(3) Video recording techniques.
(4) Masterclass. A filmmaker shares their story.
(5) Project presentation and discussion.
Video production break
(6) Project exhibition and collective feedback.
(7) Final classroom presentation.

Readings/Bibliography

Cecilia Pennacchi. 2015. Filmare le Culture. Einaudi.

Massimiliano Mollona, 2021. ART/COMMONS. Anthropology Beyond Capitalism. Zed Books.

Teaching methods

the laboratory combines frontal teaching and practical exercise testing the basic skills of filming and editing.

Assessment methods

Individual video project. 

Teaching tools

Powerpoint, Video and Master class by professional filmmakers and visual artists.

Office hours

See the website of Massimiliano Nicola Mollona