The Exploring Risk Film Festival 2024

The Exploring Risk Film Festival is a celebration of science, story-telling, and the belief in a just, safe and sustainable future.

This year the festival is hosted by the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience and Centre for Visual Arts and Culture as part of Durham University‘s Global week, on the theme of:

Shifting the Gaze in Narratives of Disaster Risk Globally

For the past four decades, the way we talk about disasters has been framed in terms of ‘resilience’ and ‘sustainability,’ often labelling affected communities as ‘vulnerable.’ This framing minimises the voices of those who are most impacted and deflects responsibility from those in charge, placing the problem and its potential solution on the individual. In our upcoming film festival, we will explore how stories shape our understanding of disasters and who gets to tell them. A panel of film directors and academics will debate the ethics of these narratives and explore how the gaze in disaster narratives globally could be shifted to make disaster risk reduction strategies more inclusive and impactful.

27^th February 2024 - 18:00 to 21:00

The full programme will be published shortly, the outline of the evening is:

18:00 Welcome Reception with Pizza.

18:30 Start of the film festival and the start of the online stream.

21:00 Close.

Location: Performance Hall, Department of Music, Palace Green, DH1 3RL 

                AND Online.

Please register to attend via the event website

Also make sure to visit the Picture of Risk 2024 photography exhibition from 7^th February 2024!