What is Festival Somos Mar?

Festival Somos Mar (FSM) is our participatory audiovisual and creative arts festival that tours public schools in small-scale fishing villages along Perú's coastline, engaging young learners and educators in play, storytelling, and exploration of ocean-human health, natural-cultural heritage, social-ecological wellbeing, sustainable fisheries, and bright futures.  

Select a year, keep scrolling, or click the arrow below to dive into our festival!

Due to the pandemic, we adapted Festival Somos Mar to include distance-learning co-creation workshops in mural, photography, animation and virtual classes with 922 students. Fortunately, we were also able to work in person with 24 students in various workshops following strict health and safety protocols.

Want to try some of our festival activities on your own? Click below to download your guide (only available in Spanish at the moment)!

FESTIVAL SOMOS MAR 2021

Here's our 2021 tour. Click a location to learn more!

Los Órganos

Festival Somos Mar was held virtually and semi-in person with the students from I.E. Salazar Bondy, the local public school in Los Órganos.

El Ñuro

Festival Somos Mar was held in person and virtually with the students from the local school in the small-scale fishing community of El Ñuro.

Lobitos

Festival Somos Mar was held in person and virtually with the students from the local school in the small-scale fishing community of Lobitos.

Talara

Festival Somos Mar was held virtually with the students of the local school, I.E. Ignacio Merino, in the fishing community and oil town of Talara.

Negritos

Festival Somos Mar was held virtually and semi-in person with the students of the locals schools, I.E. La Brea and I.E. Jose Pardo, in the small-scale fishing community of Negritos.

“Map from Coast 2 Coast” combines storytelling with geography to offer an educational and innovative way to discover the world’s coastlines through the experiences and artistic works of youth from rural fish-dependent villages. Students’ audiovisual productions co-created during Coast 2 Coast workshops highlight their communities’ natural-cultural strengths, environmental changes, challenges such as plastic pollution and hopes for the future presented through the imagination of young people and fortified by science. The map offers a collection of stop-motion animations, short films, and photography series that illuminate social and environmental nuances often undetected through conventional research approaches.

We are because the ocean is. Healthy seas mean healthy humans. In the spirit of citizen science, Festival Somos Mar sparks a dialogue over issues fisher communities face such as food insecurity, pollution, and corruption in an effort to establish marine reserves and conservation policy. 

DATES: February through May 2019

LOCATION: Northern Peru, Humboldt Current

Our inaugural participatory media arts festival for ocean health and community wellbeing toured five local schools in historically marginalized fishing villages along Peru’s northern coast where 70% of the country’s marine biodiversity is located and the largest concentration of oil exploitation operations. Our multidisciplinary team will facilitate audiovisual workshops, teacher training, and an ocean wealth community mapping initiative to establish a dialogue and information exchanges. Our immediate goal is to engage local youth in a playful way that genuinely fosters self-trust, cultural values, and marine stewardship for their coastal communities' sustainable futures.

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PARTNERS: Students Rebuild, a program of the Bezos Family Foundation, Ocean Collectiv, Lobitos Cinema Project.

FESTIVAL SOMOS MAR 2019