Considered one of the most beautiful places on Earth, the city of Venice is under siege, not just from rising tides, but from the flood of mass tourism. With millions of visitors squeezing locals from their homes each year, the city’s population hovers at a mere 58,000 – half of what it was 20 years ago. Both a cautionary tale and a requiem for one of the world’s great cultural meccas, this timely urban portrait warns how tourism, if left unchecked, can leave behind only the shell of a city.
Stick around after the screening for a special Q&A with Shawn Micallef, urban affairs columnist at The Toronto Star and author of Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto. Shawn will help us relate the film back to civic issues and his current research on the impact of tourism, good and bad, on great cities around the world.
