Photo: © 2013, Peace Dialogue, Me and My Story. Author: Armine Zakaryan.
Video: © 2013, Peace Dialogue, “To be Young in…”
During a workshop entitled “Me and My Story” that took place from June to July, 2013, Janina Mobius and Sandra Merseburger, trainers from La Paloma Documentaries, introduced the participants to the theoretical approaches of documentary film design and shooting. This gave the young participants an opportunity to refine their skills by practical exercises and shootings.
The workshop is a part of Peace Dialogue NGO’S Let’s see…Let’s Choose…Let’s Change… three year project aimed at encouraging the young people representing societies in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to use their creative and intellectual potential to mobilize their peers and integrate them in peace building activism.
According to PD staff, supporting young people to gain skills in documentary filmmaking will give them an opportunity to confront manipulations of history and the creation of the image of the enemy in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict societies by sharing their stories with their peers with the help of their own media production. During the workshop, the participants developed three scenarios for three documentary films. By applying the skills they had gained, they made their films.
The second phase of the “Me and My Story” workshop took place from September 3 to 13, again in Tbilisi. This time, the participants edited the materials and the final cut of the film with the help of the trainers from La Paloma Documentaries and PD media specialist Armen Papyan.
“As a result, we have three short films: ‘Me,’ ‘Choice’ and ‘The Dreamers’ that were combined into one film entitled ‘To be young in…,’” said Edgar Khachatryan, the President of Peace Dialogue. All three films talk about the issues that relate to young people.
Despite this common topic, all three films are completely different in style and in the peculiarities of the issues raised.“I think the project participants have a very interesting opportunity to hold discussions about the issues raised in the films when screening these films among their peers in their communities and in various cities and villages,” adds E. Khachatryan.
The film is in the process of translation and subtitling. The staff of the Let’s see… Let’s Choose… Let’s Change… project plans to organize the premiere of the film in Tbilisi. The film will then be spread through the websites and media tools of PD and its partner organizations.
The Project՛s German Partners are – OWEN – Mobile Akademie für Geschlechterdemokratie und Friedensförderung e.V.
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«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.
