In December 2025, Palombar's Shared Futures – Nature and Rural Heritage Conservation project organised a Travelling Environmental Film Festival, which was the culmination of months of collective, artistic and intergenerational work, with concrete results that connected people, nature and wildlife and showed that there is much more that unites us than divides us; that, together, we can build a shared future where everyone coexists in a symbiotic and non-hierarchical relationship.

During the Film Cycle, which took place in the municipality of Miranda do Douro, at the Municipal Library, and in the nursing homes of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Miranda do Douro in Duas Igrejas and Palaçoulo, more than 90 people participated, and short films and mini-documentaries from ‘Campo Comum’ were screened and the magazine ‘Zona de Contacto’ was launched. These productions are the result of a collective creative and interdisciplinary effort that brought together artists, biologists, specialists and generations around the vital dynamic relationships between humans and nature.

Films and mini-documentaries ‘Campo Comum’: young people developed skills in the area of creative production

The films screened during the Cycle were selected by the students of the Miranda do Douro School Group who were part of the project, who also launched the mini-documentaries produced during Campo Comum.

Young people and the elderly play a central role in the Shared Futures project. Photo: Palombar.
 

 

Screening of one of the short documentaries produced by the students. Photo: Palombar.

Campo Comum was organised by the project between 23 and 28 June 2025, in Miranda do Douro, and included creative workshops that equipped young people with creative and reflective production skills and tools to empower them, build bridges of dialogue and coexistence with the natural environment and wildlife.

Young people also played a key role in the Cycle, participating in its organisation, moderation and collective conversations.

Helena Barril, Mayor of Miranda do Douro, talks about the importance of the project for the municipality. Photo: Palombar.

Launch of “Zona de Contacto” magazine: a fusion of art, people and nature

The launch of the first edition of the collective magazine “Zona de Contacto”, which will soon be available to everyone in digital format, also took place during the Cycle.

This publication reflects the convergence between people and the environment, who met and interacted in a dynamic that aimed to build and rebuild futures where, more than just a place, there is life shared between everyone and for everyone – humans and nature. The magazine was presented by the project coordinators and the young people who took part in it.

Launch of the "Zona de Contacto" collective magazine. Photo: Palombar.

With the magazine in hand, young people – who carry the future – and the elderly – guardians of time and knowledge – were able to read, see and feel a reality projected on paper that reflects the common environment, myths, fears, stories, knowledge and, above all, the deconstruction of what disconnects us, in order to build and perpetuate what keeps us in contact.

A young person who took part in the project reads a text from Zona de Contacto magazine during the first session of the Travelling Environmental Film Cycle. Photo: Palombar.
 

Film screening at one of the nursing homes run by Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Miranda do Douro. Photo: Palombar.


Zona de Contacto magazine connects generations to nature and builds bridges of dialogue that form the basis of a shared future. Photo: Palombar.


Elderly people read Zona de Contacto magazine, which debunks myths about various species, such as bats. Photo: Palombar.

With the pilot phase completed, the project moves on to a new stage

The Cycle also celebrated the completion of the pilot phase of the project, which was approved by the funding entities to move on to a new stage: effective implementation, which will run until December 2027. We continue together in this zone of contact and sharing, creating, empowering, rebuilding and building a common future, where we all have a place and a connection.

We carry on creating contact zones. Photo: Palombar.

About the Shared Futures project

"Shared Futures - Collaborative narratives to reimagine multispecies coexistence" is a Palombar project developed in partnership with the Miranda do Douro Municipal Council, Santa Casa da Misericórdia and the municipality's school group. It is supported by the PARTIS & ART FOR CHANGE programme of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, BPI and the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation.