Internships & Erasmus+ Traineeships

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE A GUARIMBERO INTERN IN LA GUARIMBA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL?

We would love to have you!

At La Guarimba, internships are a hands-on experience: you won’t just observe, you’ll take part in every step of running a cultural organisation in Southern Italy.

Our interns do a bit of everything—from pre-production to event production, from organising activities at our library to supporting our outdoor cultural space. Depending on the season, the focus of your work will change:

  • Winter months: mainly in our 24/7 open library and our office, where you’ll help with planning, research, communication, and preparing the summer programme.

  • Summer months: in addition to office and library tasks, you’ll be directly involved in setting up the festival and outdoor events—sometimes this means literally installing the projector and sound system before screenings.

You’ll grow personally and professionally while helping us to bring the cinema back to the people and the people back to cinema.

Our internships are unpaid, but you will never replace regular employees—you will work under close supervision of our staff and always with meaningful tasks that matter.

We welcome students through the Erasmus+ programme, and internships last a minimum of 2 months (with flexible duration depending on your needs and ours). We accept new interns in September–November, January, and April. You don’t need to speak Italian, but good English or Spanish will help.

Living costs in Amantea are very low (a room around €300, food from €100/month), making the experience affordable and accessible. More importantly, what you gain here is real experience in cultural management, not just “bringing coffee.”

Erasmus+ supports traineeships abroad for students enrolled in higher education (Bachelor, Master, PhD) as well as recent graduates from Programme countries.

The positions available are listed on this website. We are not looking for programmers or film critics.

WHO ARE WE

La Guarimba is a cultural organization based in Amantea, Calabria (Southern Italy) that uses culture as a vehicle to promote values of participatory democracy, integration, human rights, and accessibility. Our main goal is to bring the cinema back to the people and the people back to the cinema.

We operate across three main spaces that shape our daily work:

  • Our office, where we coordinate projects, host interns, and plan activities year-round.

  • La Piccola Biblioteca, a community library open 24/7, designed as a safe space for study, creativity, and cultural exchange, where we also run workshops and educational activities.

  • Il Terrenito, our outdoor cultural space, where every summer we host screenings, concerts, and community gatherings under the stars.

These spaces together form a living cultural hub where international artists, local residents, and young people meet, collaborate, and create.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for motivated and curious people with a genuine desire to learn and contribute across different areas of our work. The ideal candidate is someone who:

  • is punctual and respects deadlines and agreements,

  • knows how to communicate clearly and work collaboratively,

  • is proactive and ready to make themselves useful where needed,

  • values flexibility and adaptability,

  • understands the importance of teamwork over individual competition.

This internship is not about high-pressure corporate tasks, but it does require responsibility and commitment. In return, you’ll have the chance to grow, learn, and play a real role in a supportive and creative environment.

OUR TRAINING METHOD

To train new team members, we rely on a gradual empowerment process based on non-formal education methods such as Montessori Schooling and Learning by Doing.

Interns are assigned specific tasks and are supported by a mentor who follows their progress step by step. As they acquire skills, they are entrusted with increasing responsibilities. This approach builds mutual trust and fosters autonomy and independence.

In addition to practical field training, we encourage experiential learning: interns are directly involved in our association’s activities, working hands-on with real projects and ongoing challenges. This way, learning goes beyond theory and becomes part of their everyday practice.

INTERNSHIPS AREAS

At La Guarimba, interns don’t fit into rigid job titles. Instead, they explore different areas of our work depending on their interests, skills, and the needs of the organisation. This way, everyone gains a well-rounded experience of what it means to run a cultural project in Southern Italy.

Here are the main areas you might explore during your internship:

  • Operations & Office Work
    Support the daily coordination of our projects: answering emails, managing schedules, helping with logistics, and ensuring everything runs smoothly behind the scenes.

  • Events & Production
    Get involved in the preparation and execution of our cultural activities. Depending on the season, this can mean organising workshops in our library, coordinating the daily activities of our Library, or setting up projectors and sound systems for outdoor screenings.

  • Media & Communication
    Help us tell our story through social media, photography, graphic design, and video editing. You’ll also assist in preparing communication materials for our website, press, and printed events programmes, making sure our identity is clear and consistent across platforms.

  • Languages & Accessibility
    Make our projects more accessible by translating materials, creating subtitles, and helping us reach international audiences. Your language skills directly expand our global community.

Interns are free to move across areas, combining different tasks and discovering new skills along the way. What matters most is your curiosity, reliability, and willingness to contribute to the team.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN

An internship at La Guarimba is more than a list of tasks — it’s a chance to gain real skills you can carry into your professional and personal life. During your time with us, you will:

  • Develop organisational skills by coordinating schedules, managing tasks, and supporting the daily life of our office and library.

  • Understand cultural event production from the inside, learning how to plan, prepare, and execute both small-scale workshops and large outdoor screenings.

  • Gain communication and media experience through social media management, content creation, press materials, and visual storytelling.

  • Acquire technical skills with professional tools, including Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, Microsoft Excel, and WordPress.

  • Improve teamwork and collaboration by working closely with an international, multidisciplinary team in a supportive environment.

  • Strengthen language and intercultural skills by working in English, Spanish, and Italian while engaging with people from all over the world.

  • Learn adaptability and problem-solving by facing real challenges and contributing to creative solutions.

By the end of the internship, you won’t just have helped us run a cultural project — you’ll have built a toolbox of skills that includes both soft and hard competences, valuable for any professional path you choose.

HOW TO APPLY

1.-Read all the information on this link.

2.-Check the positions we are offering and explain why you would like to be in that position. Do not apply for all of them.

3.-Fill this form.

4.-Send us an email introducing yourself with your English-written 1 page CV attached. Remember to tell us the months when you want to come.

WHEN TO APPLY

Internship applications will be received from September 1st to January 31st.

Do not apply outside that period as we will not be able to answer.