“Form is when the substance rises to the surface”. Practices, Narratives and Autopoiesis of the Festival dei Popoli

This paper focuses on how film festivals research can be epistemologically framed and methodologically designed. “How can a film festival be observed?” and “how can a festival secure its own survival and preserve itself over the time?” are here the necessaries starting questions, for it urges one to look at how and where a festival is formed, in the moment when it takes shape. Drawing from the long story of Festival dei Popoli – International Documentary Film Festival, this paper aims to demonstrate that it is possible to identify three distinct objects of analysis: practices, narratives and autopoiesis, corresponding to three different but complementary ways of observing festivals (as interactions, narrations and organizations). This theoretical and methodological framework, inspired by systems theory, narratives and interaction analysis, can permit an uncommon observational perspective that is able to question what is often taken for granted.