The Spi Stories Short Film Festival reaches its fourteenth edition. The competition, created by the publisher LiberEtà and the CGIL Pensioners Union, has chosen the title "Chissà se fuori..." ("I wonder if out there...") for this edition. You can participate to the competition by creating a video with a maximum length of eleven minutes, released in 2025. The Spi Stories Short Film Festival reaches its fourteenth edition. Created by the publishing house LiberEtà and the CGIL Union of Retirees, this year’s competition takes on the title “I Wonder If Out There… Telling Stories of Solitude, Rediscovering Community.”
This edition focuses on solitude—whether chosen or endured—on community, and on the ties that hold us together. There are moments when each of us feels vulnerable. Not only when the body slows down, but when something cracks in our connection with others: when our voice no longer finds an answer, when the world seems to move forward without us.
Solitude and fragility are not exceptions; they are part of the human condition. They cross generations, hide behind lives that look busy and fulfilled, and reveal a fundamental need we all share: to be seen, heard, acknowledged.
“I Wonder If Out There…” was born to tell these stories. To give shape and voice to what often remains in the shadows—or is mistakenly thought to belong only to certain people: the sick, the elderly, those living on the margins. But solitude has many faces, and fragility does not belong to one stage of life. There are young forms of fragility—lives that struggle to find a place in the world. There are collective solitudes that inhabit crowded cities. There are lives full of noise but empty of presence.
The competition invites filmmakers to explore that subtle space between the “inside” and the “outside”: those who remain within the boundaries of community, those who are pushed out, those who step outside in search of air, those who get lost, and those who find their way again thanks to a gesture, a word, a glance.
“Outside” is not only what separates us—it can also be what reconnects us. Outside is the square, the street, the group, the voice calling our name. Outside is the threshold where encounters can begin again.
Fragility is not a weakness but a possibility. Those who acknowledge their own fragility are already “outside” a world that demands strength and self-sufficiency at all costs. They choose to remain open, to welcome others, to build relationships. In this sense, fragility becomes a political act: it forces us to rethink how we live together, how much room we give to care, listening, and solidarity.
“I Wonder If Out There…” does not ask for pity, but for awareness. It calls on participants to tell—through any form of visual language—the story of fragile lives that endure, of solitude seeking a passage, of the need for community that runs through our everyday lives. It is an invitation to open the door, to look at what lies outside—and perhaps also at who we are leaving outside.
Participants can enter the competition with a video of up to eleven minutes, produced after January 2025.
