Wednesday, April 29, 2026
4.30 pm CEST, Room 1G
Venice International University, San Servolo Island
Giovanni Pellegrini, Film Director
Lagunaria (2022), directed by Giovanni Pellegrini, is a poetic documentary that explores the identity of Venice. Through a blend of observational footage and imaginative storytelling, the film presents the city as if seen from a distant future, where its existence is uncertain and its memory drifts between myth and reality.
A voice from a distant future tells of a vanished city that was once among the most famous in the world, a city born from the water. Through legends, rituals, and rumors, the narrator evokes a daily life shaped by boats (at times mythical, at times dramatic and poetic) revealing a deep relationship with the surrounding lagoon, its waters, its muddy islands, and the animals that inhabit it. Did that city ever truly exist? Is it still inhabited, or has it become a tourist park? Did it withstand the floods, or was it submerged? Has it survived past plagues? Have its inhabitants found new ways of living together?
Moving between everyday life in the lagoon and a reflective, almost dreamlike narration, Lagunaria invites viewers to consider the impact of climate change, mass tourism, and the passage of time on one of the world’s most iconic cities. Rather than offering a conventional narrative, the film creates an immersive experience that encourages contemplation on the relationship between humans, place, and environmental transformation.
In this VIULecture, the documentary will be screened, followed by a Q&A with its director, Giovanni Pellegrini.
Registration required (both online and in-person attendance). Attendees can also register in person before the event.
Giovanni Pellegrini. Film director, cinematographer, and producer born in Venice in 1981, Pellegrini studied the history of navigation and worked as a naturalist guide in the Venetian lagoon before graduating in documentary directing from the Italian National Film School in 2012. His documentaries have been presented and awarded at international festivals, including the Locarno Film Festival, the Venice Days, the San Sebastián HRFF, the Melbourne EFFA, Visioni Italiane in Bologna, and the Euganea Film Festival. He currently lives and works in Venice, a city to which he has dedicated his last three films: Aquagranda in crescendo (Venice Days, 2017), La città delle sirene (Torino CinemAmbiente, 2021), and Lagunaria (MAFF, AWFF, 2022).
