Photo: © 2013, Peace Dialogue, Me and My Story Workshop. Author: Armine Zakaryan
Yet another workshop organized by Peace Dialogue NGO is completed. Twelve young people representing the Nagorno-Kharabakh conflict parties had an opportunity to take part in the workshop on documentary filmmaking held in Tbilisi from June 25-July 3.
The workshop, entitled Me and My Story, was organized by PD as a part of its Let՛s See… Let՛s Choose… Let՛s Change… three year project, which encourages participants to use their creative and intellectual potential to mobilize their peers and to use nonviolent methods to reach mutual understanding between conflicting parties.
“…There are some young people who like to shoot, so this seminar՛s theme is up to date and will be particularly useful for young people…” Svetlana Jhangiryan, participant.
For this year, the organizing team has also developed a new methodology called History Theatre. It is based on Augusto Boal՛s theatre techniques, Paulo Freire՛s pedagogical views, and the experience that the organizational team has gained on the historical views of the representatives from the societies of conflicting parties.
According to PD staff, supporting young people to gain skills in documentary filmmaking and interactive theater will, first, give them an opportunity to face manipulations of history by sharing their stories with their peers and, second, have a contribution in shaping a history based on the memories of average people.PD՛s partner organization, CMI, provided each group with cameras and equipment.In this phase, the project aims to develop a youth movement for peace in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict region and simultaneously develop a critical view of history among the participants and a perception that they have an important role in shaping a collective memory.
“…Each group will prepare a 10-15 minutes film that later will be combined into one film. Our group preferred the theme dealing with self-expression issues among young girls. More specifically, we will shoot a film about a rock band that has only girl members that does not even have a proper place for rehearsals…” Elen Sahakyan, participant.
The trainers of the documentary filmmaking workshop were Janina Mobius and Sandra Mersenburger, the founders of La Paloma Documentaries. During the 7-day workshop, they introduced the participants from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno-Karabakh to the peculiarities of the cameras, the steps in documentary making, the established views, and the theory of shooting, light, and film design. These lessons were followed by practical activities.
According to the trainers and the participants the meeting was rather productive despite the difficulties and tense working schedule. It should be very useful in involving young people in civil and peace building activism.The organizers of the workshop aimed to develop critical thinking among the participants regarding the established historical views and introduce them to the illusions used by the television media. For the later, certain examples of the work of the American television and photographic media during the coverage of the Iraq war was studied. These showed examples of stage tricks and decorations being used in order to get what was needed. At the end of the workshop, the participants clarified their ideas regarding documentary filmmaking: using all the knowledge that they have received they will shoot films in their respective areas during the upcoming months. At the next workshop all the films will be edited and combined into one film.
The Project՛s German Partners are – OWEN – Mobile Akademie für Geschlechterdemokratie und Friedensförderung e.V.
and
«La Paloma Documentaries» Production (La Paloma Documentaries)
The purchase of the shooting materials was done with the support of a Finnish NGO «CMI (Conflict Management Initiative) within the Peaceful Settlement of the Conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh (EPNK-2) project.
The project “Let՛s See… Let՛s Choose… Let՛s Change…” is supported by the zivik(Civil Conflict Resolution) programme of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa) with means from the German Federal Foreign Office.
