Resolving Postconflictual Situations through Visual Arts

Project description: The Romanian Independent Film Association (ARFI) was established in 2008 and it is the founder of Timishort Film Festival, the single film festival in Timișoara. ARFI team has gained a vast experience through time. It acomplished organising several types of cultural events for the masses and have always had a special interest in encouraging and helping young people take part in their activities, thus becoming a model for other independent initiatives and supporting them in their logistical and informational effort.

In choosing our partner countries, we focused on them being part of the candidate states for the EU accession or to have a similar background with the country of Romania. We were particularly interested in the youth’s opinions and vision regarding such aspects, similarities and specific concerns.

The project will gather up 30 young participants coming from the following 5 countries: Hungary, Serbia, FYR of Macedonia and Albania.

From each partner country there will be 6 participants, one of which being the group leader. During the youth mobility program, taking place in Timisoara, the participants will be divided in multinational teams. Participants will be selected by the organising teams together with the participant organisations and they will assure gender equality and balance in other aspects such as age and origin.

In choosing our candidates we are looking for young people from the before mentioned countries, with ages between 18-30 (group leaders can be aged between 25-35). We will also make sure that the candidates have a particular interest in the project’s themes: developing their abilities to work with filming materials or photography and willing to make a documented research in their country of origin regarding the state of the cinematic culture and the use of film and cinema as a means for propaganda.

The group leaders will be individuals with a certain degree of experience and competences concerning the project’s themes, given the role they have as mentors for the young participants and helping them acomplish all their tasks in the best way possible, both before and during their stay in Romania.

The objectives of the project are:
– increasing the young participants’ interest in discovering and getting to know and understand other countries and cultures, especially the ones with a similar background and the candidate states to the EU accession, in order to help them in this process
– developing the social and professional competences of the young participants by their involvement in a youth mobility program, their interaction with other young people and also with experts from various fields of activity and by learning the practical techniques of making and editing photo/video materials
– promoting and perpetuating non-formal education and modern teaching techniques which are more attractive to young people, and also innovating and developing such abilities for all project participants
– understanding the mission that cinema culture plays at an international level and its role in educating the public and perpetuating accurate and positive messages and also the promotion of visual arts among young people

The project will take place between the 11-th and 18th of October 2015 in Timișoara, Romania. The period in which the project will take place will coincides with the schedule of the single film festival in Timisoara. This will significantly improve the visibility of the project, also giving the participants the chance to interact with professional people working in the film industry, who will be present at the festival.

The main activities of the project will consist in:
– non-formal meetings and discussions with experts in the area of making and editing photo-video materials, in which we will combine non-formal education with academic competences
– work sessions for the multinational teams; working visits at the headquarters of institutes and organisations that are relevant for the project; sessions of discussions on project matters which will help the participants to acomplish making their photo/video materials for the project successfully
– during their stay, the young participants will get to see how one of the most important cultural events in Timisoara, Timishort Film Festival, is being prepared. They will get to interact with the festival’s team and will have access to information regarding the development and promotion of cinema culture at an international level and its mission in educating the public

The envisaged results will be:
– developing a pro-active attitude among young people concerning the importance of solving post-conflict situations at an ethnic and national level
– the development of specific competences in the fields of non-formal education, film language and video editing among all participants
– promoting visual arts as a means of reflecting cultural diversity, and also, a means to get to know and understand the context of certain conflicts and promote tolerance and cooperation among states.

  • Programme and action:

    Erasmus+ KA1 youth exchange

  • Dates:

    10.10.2015 - 19.10.2015

  • Venue:

    Timișoara, Romania

  • Number of participants:

    30

  • Participating countries:
    • Albania
    • Hungary
    • Macedonia
    • Romania
    • Serbia