WITHOUT BORDERS Workshops/Youth Cinema 2023
“We are the jury”
In 2023, pupils (this year it was the 8th grade of the Europaschule Storkow) once again acted as the youth jury for FILM WITHOUT BORDERS and selected two films in a one-week workshop with project managers Anna Faroqhi and Haim Peretz, which they presented to invited school classes as an independent jury at the festival in September.
During the workshop, the young people watched a documentary or feature film every day for a week at the Schukurama cinema in Beeskow that addressed the festival theme of ZUVERSICHT. The main topics were youth and role models, racism, poverty and education. After each screening, there was a discussion about the films, the meaning of the word “confidence” and the interpretation of it in the respective film.
As a final task of the workshop, the students were allowed to co-curate the festival program: They voted and selected the two “winning films” for the FILM OHNE GRENZEN school cinema program.
The youth jury chose the following films:
“NENEH SUPERSTAR” (France 2022), directed by Ramzi Ben Sliman
“Schools of the World” (Germany/France 2021), directed by Émilie Thérond
Film workshops on the topic of “life course”
In 2023, several workshops took place that dealt with the topic of “life course” in a broader sense.
In a participatory film project, student Sham Alfaad reported on her escape from Syria to Turkey and Greece until she arrived in Germany in 2020. The workshop leaders supported Sham in her search for a place for a student internship and worked with her on the applications. Sham was interested in the medium of film. The internship took place in April at a production company in Fürstenwalde and was accompanied by a camera, with Sham also taking pictures and contributing to the documentation.
Sham during her student internship
At the “Am Fuchsbau” refugee shelter in the Oder-Spree district, our team launched a project to help residents write their CVs. This process was recorded on film, partly by our team and partly by the residents themselves using the cameras. Around 40 CVs and several letters to landlords and employers were created during the project days. Actress Laura Tonke supported the project and read out the CV of Obada Zedan, a trained doctor from Syria, in front of the camera.
Actress Laura Tonke and doctor Obada Zedane read the CV of Obada Zendane
The projects were presented to the audience at the FILM WITHOUT BORDERS festival. Residents of the hostel were invited to the festival. Due to the positive response and high demand, the project will be continued in 2024.
Continuation
The FIM OHNE GRENZEN continuation program serves to promote film, disseminate the content of the youth projects in the district and get to know and make contact with new groups and potential participants.
FILM OHNE GRENZEN organized a film evening at the Fuchsbau shared accommodation to get to know the residents. Around 20 residents from the accommodation, including many children, took part.
Another project, the reading experiment “Kateryna’s Story”, took place in the Caritas shared accommodation in Bad Saarow. In a mini-workshop, residents from Ukraine created a short cinematic reading of the escape story of a 14-year-old girl from Ukraine. The participants took to the “reading experiment” with great enthusiasm and were extremely interested in the technical and acting aspects of working on a film. The translations between German and Ukrainian were done by the participants themselves.
Following this project, the resulting short film was presented to other residents at a film evening in the Caritas GU.
Another film evening with a discussion round for young people with a history of migration and flight was organized at the Storkow youth club.
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WITHOUT BORDERS Workshops/Youth Cinema 2022
THE JURY IS US
This year, students from the 9th grade at Maxim Gorki School once again made up the youth jury for FILM WITHOUT BORDERS. The jury selected their winning films, which the young people presented at the festival in Bad Saarow.
During the one-week workshop with filmmakers Anna Faroqhi and Haim Peretz, the participants watched a documentary film every day at Cinema Bad Saarow that addressed this year’s festival theme ÜBER_MORGEN. The focus was on youth and role models, climate change, individual and general concepts of freedom.
At the end of the workshop, the students voted on which of this year’s competition films would be shown in the FILM WITHOUT BORDERS school cinema program. This task not only caused excitement, but also pride: with their decision, they can help determine the program for a festival.
The winning films were presented by the youth jury in person at the FILM WITHOUT BORDERS school cinema:
GIRL GANG (Switzerland 2022)
INTO THE ICE (Germany/Denmark 2022)
WATCHING FILMS, MAKING FILMS
In a “Film for Refugees” workshop, young and adult residents of the Bad Saarow shared accommodation were given the opportunity to watch films together and make their own moving images for a cinema in front of the cinema. This is followed by short projects in schools and meeting places in which the work of the youth projects is presented and explored in greater depth.
LONGING FOR NATURE
In a participatory documentary film project, the project leaders and filmmakers Faroqhi and Peretz entered into an exchange with three natural places in Berlin and Brandenburg, their present and history, as well as with the people who are trying to preserve the naturalness of the places. The resulting film reflects on how nature can be recognized as a subject and partner rather than just a usable object. In project days at schools, places of learning and encounters
REMEMBER
Because they want to take a stand of their own after an attack on a concentration camp memorial, residents of the Justus Delbrück House, a temporary home for homeless young people with addictions, plan and build an extension for it together with a social worker, a historian and an architect.A symbolic grave will be created and ceremoniously dedicated. Visitors are given the opportunity to actively express their remembrance.The filmmakers Anna Faroqhi and Haim Peretz accompany these people in their deliberations and at the inauguration of the memorial with their camera. The film was shown as part of the opening event of FILM WITHOUT BORDERS 2022.
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WITHOUT BORDERS Workshops/Youth Cinema 2021
THE JURY IS US
Year 10 pupils from Rouanet-Gymnasium Beeskow met every morning for a week at the “Schukurama Beeskow” cinema to watch feature films and documentaries from different countries on a variety of themes of longing. Together with the filmmakers and project managers Anna Faroqhi and Haim Peretz, they talked and wrote about the films – and selected their favorites for this year’s school cinema program. They slipped into the role of film critics and jurors.
The winning films will be presented in person by the youth jury at the FILM WITHOUT BORDERS school cinema:
A VILLAGE SEES BLACK (F 2016), directed by Julien Rambaldi
DAS FIEBER – DER KAMPF GEGEN MALARIA (Austria, Germany, Switzerland 2019), director: Katharina Weingartner
MY LONGING FOR…
A film project in cooperation with Innocence in Danger e.V.: In a 10-day workshop, children and young people between the ages of 6 and 17 from residential youth care in Berlin worked together to create a film about their longings. As experts on their story, the participants set out to find the right form and the right way to present it. They were accompanied by film professionals and specialists from Innocence in Danger e.V. .
The resulting short film will celebrate its premiere at the 9th FILM OHNE GRENZEN Festival
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WITHOUT BORDERS Workshops/Youth Cinema 2020
We are very pleased that we were able to invite pupils from the Oder-Spreee district to the school cinema even in Corona times. Two films were shown that were selected for the first time by a youth jury of pupils from the Maxim Gorki School in Bad Saarow as part of a FILM WITHOUT BORDERS workshop. The winning films CHUSKIT by Indian director Priya Ramasubarattan and the documentary OUR BIG LITTLE FARM by US filmmaker John Chester were presented by the jury on the Thursday of the festival.
Workshops
For the first time, the festival showed a selection of films for children and young people, curated and presented by a youth jury.
Year 10 pupils from the Maxim Gorki School in Bad Saarow came to Cinema Bad Saarow every morning for a week to watch films for children and young people from five different countries and three continents. Together with the filmmakers and project leaders Anna Faroqhi and Haim Peretz, they talked and wrote about the films. They thought about which films should be shown in the school cinema program at this year’s FILM WITHOUT BORDERS festival. They slipped into the role of film critics and jurors.
The main focus of the discussions was on perception. The question: “What did I see?” came before the quick judgment. Camera concepts and actor direction, light, music, tempo and narrative figures were considered in order to provide a well-founded answer to this question. The young jurors were challenged to respectfully and reflectively examine films whose visual and formal language expanded the boundaries of their viewing habits. They practiced watching films, talking about films and using democratic discussion and decision-making tools. The young people, aged between 15 and 17, not only asked themselves questions about the way a film is made, but also how it could relate to the reality of young people’s lives here and now in Germany and in Bad Saarow and, above all, how it fits in with the festival theme of MUT.
Above all, however, the group of students, who had to forego class trips and graduation parties due to the coronavirus, had an opportunity to get together.
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A DREAM OF LIFE
As last year, the focus of this film and encounter project was on the topic of work. In the small town of Storkow, people with and without a migration background sewed around 3,000 masks for all residents in the spring: masks for everyone. The place of work was the Storkow Peace Village, a meeting and educational place that has been involved in international and anti-racist youth, educational and cultural work for over 20 years.
In this second workshop, project leaders Anna Faroqhi and Haim Peretz accompanied the process and created a short observational documentary film, which will premiere at the festival (festival Sunday 1pm).
The project ended with a week of learning and encounters in the Peace Village. Anna Faroqhi: “We noticed that during the corona crisis, German lessons for adults and children had completely stopped.” Haim Peretz: “This seemed particularly problematic for the two Somali families who have only been in the Peace Village since January 2020 and have hardly any connections in Storkow. Thanks to the great commitment of some people from Storkow, we were still able to teach them a little.”
Being together was combined with “learning the language”. Vocabulary memory, vocabulary booklets, word learning, quizzes, reading and retelling texts, as well as watching films together, cooking and swimming in the Great Storkow Lake were all part of the program.
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THE COMMON THIRD
Experience from previous years has shown that tolerant coexistence is unfortunately still not a matter of course everywhere.
At the request of participants from last year, the work from the FILM WITHOUT BORDERS youth projects is therefore going on tour.
In creative projects in Bad Saarow and the district, short films from the youth program will be shown at schools and cultural institutions. They are intended to provide inspiration for creative short projects. The focus of these encounters is on speaking together and the artistic and creative exploration of topics such as tolerance, identity, courage and future prospects. New partnerships may be formed, for example for future youth juries or project participants in a film workshop. Above all, however, the participants should be encouraged to take an open, unprejudiced view of their environment and to talk about their potential concerns.
The exchange with young people and local educators is strengthened. The youth projects of the FILM WITHOUT BORDERS association thus become the basis and basis for discussion for new ideas and projects.
The project began in August 2020 and will continue until the end of the year.
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WITHOUT BORDERS Workshops/Youth Cinema 2019
Workshops
In June this year’s third WITHOUT BORDERS workshop for people with and without a history of flight took place: Under the guidance of Anna Faroqhi and Haim Peretz, Berlin artists and authors of experimental documentary films, as well as composers and sound artists Eunice Martins and Laura Mello, around 20 refugees form the Fuchsbau temporary residence in Petersdorf, young people from the Nord Fürstenwalde youth club and apprentices from various trades from Storkow and Bad Saarow worked on the „Symphony oft the Small Town“ film project.
The two-part workshop first brought the fugitives into contact with the work in the companies and enabled the participants to gain initial insights and activities. At the same time, the participants were given a quick course in the use of HD cameras and sound equipment so that they could participate both in front of and behind the camera. A short film essay on the subject of „work“ was produced.
In the second part oft he workshop, the pictures, based on the silent film classic „Berlin – Symphony of a Big City“, wer set to music by the resulting sound recordings and musical creations. „The participants should have the opportunity to perceive life realities beyond their own environment and to capture them in images and sounds“, says Anna Faroqhi. The result is a versatile cinematic and musical montage; enocounters, relationships and opportunities for teaching and work have come about. „To wish, that such encounters were part of everyday life“, says Faroqhi.
„Symphonie of the Small Town“ premiers as well as all the other workshop projects at WITHOUT BORDERS Festival 2019.
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The school project ‘Mix it’ – an initiative of the Deutsche Filmakademie and bilderbewegen e.V. – took place from 3 to 7 June in Fürstenwalde and was a great success. For the first time realised in cooperation with WITHOUT BORDERS Festival, 30 young people – with and without a history of flight – from the European School OSZ Oder-Spree jointly shot three short films on the subject of „elections“.
In the first film everything revolves around the fictitious party FMP – „Fürstenwalder Mixed party“ – which was developed by the students for this film project. The other film is about a girl who is allowed to vote and doesn’t want to – and about a boy who wants to vote but isn’t allowed to. The third film is a documentary about the project week itself. While working on the films, the young people dealt with highly sensitive questions: where they see themselves politically as young people ? What do they think about migration? What prejudices do they have and who are their (political) role models?
For Wanissou Bounou from Benin, this week fulfills a long cherished wish: ‚I like this workshop so much, because the fugitives can finally get together with the locals by working togehter on the films and get to know each other in a completely different way in the team.‘
Anyone wishing to see the results of this project week has the opportunity to do so on August 29, 2019 in Bad Saarow: in the presence oft the participants and other guests the three films will premiere at the FILM OHNE GRENZEN/WITHOUT BORDERS Festival.
Afterwards they will be screened on the Youtube Channel of ‘mix it’: youtube.com/mixitfilmprojekt
Foto: © bilderbewegen
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Since 2016 WITHOUT BORDERS FILM has organised film screenings, discussions and workshops for children and young people. A first film workshop took place in March 2019 with DASI Berlin GmbH. The project was aimed at young people who for various reasons are no longer able to live at home and are therefore supervised by the Diakonische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sozialpädagogischer Initiativen. Guided by the VR journalists Christiane Wittenbecher and Susanne Dickel of IntoVR, the young people produced a 360° film. Together they developed the concept, the script and the shooting schedule. In doing so, they should deal with the content of this year’s festival theme: „WE“. The subtopic of their film, which the young people chose themselves in a first trial, was bullying. The head oft he DASI Berlin department in charge empfasized the importance of such a film workshop fort he young people:“ It gives them enormous independence and they experience what it means to be creative and to let something come into being. This strengthens their personality – qualities that will advance them in their further lives.“ The workshop was sponsored by the Stiftung Berliner Sparkasse.
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WITHOUT BORDERS Workshops/Youth Cinema 2018
Youth Cinema
During the festival days we again invited pupils from the Oder-Spree district to school cinema events as part of the WITHOUT BORDERS Festival. This time the film “Das schweigende Klassenzimmer” by Lars Kraume, based on the book of the same name, was shown. After the film screenings the students were able to rework their impressions through discussions with the present contemporary witness Karsten Köhler.
Workshops
Since 2016 WITHOUT BORDERS Festival has organised workshops for young refugees and Germans alongside the festival. In the first workshop of July 2018, a film was produced by those living in shared accommodation in Bad Saarow. In a collage of texts, films, music and their own photos, the young men and ladies persue their stories and tell of their lives – both here and in their homelands. Together with the film-makers Anna Faroqhi and Haim Perez , the participants visited various places in Bad Saarow and spoke of their memories, plans and dreams. In the second part, sound was added to the produced films with the help of the musicians and composers Laura Mello and Eunice Martins. The film celebrated its premiere at the WITHOUT BORDERS Festival in the presence of their makers.
Another workshop took place during the festival week in cooperation with Maxim Gorki Oberschule. Led by trainers from IntoVR, the school students from Brandenburg produced a 360° video together with young refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and Serbia. The students developed the concept, the shooting schedule and the storyboard. The film “Our Bad Saarow” was presented on viertual reality glasses at the opening evening of the WITHOUT BORDRS Festival. “Working with the youth was an intense experience. 16 hig school students, of various origins, some of them only since two years in Germany. That was a real challenge, but we were able to really inspire them with the medium and quickly saw how strongly they got involved, tried themselves out, even in front of the camera, interviewed the mayor and developed ideas. They grew by themselves. It’s a great feeling to observe this”, says Christiane Wittenbecher from IntoVR about the project.
We thank the contributors and all those who, with their support, make these social projects possible in the first place.
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WITHOUT BORDERS Workshops/Youth Cinema 2017
Youth Cinema
Around 160 students from Bad-Sarrow and Fürstenwalde schools were able to watch the film ‘Bach in Brazil’. Subsequently the filmmaker Ansgar Ahlers led a lively discussion with German students and youth from the so-called ‘Welcome classes’ (partly made up of refugees). The analysis about what was watched continued throughout the festival and could lead to a valuable addition to extra-curricular education. We very much hope to further build up this part of the festival in the future.
Workshops
Just as we could offer a workshop for German and refugee school children in 2016, we were happy to be able to similarly implement two different media projects in 2017. Here, the youth worked together and through it could develop a better understanding of one another. Aided by artists and film score composers, independent film contributions emerged out of weeklong workshops during June and September 2017. In the first workshop, word-e-scape, it was about analysis with word and speech. In the second workshop sonONOlux the youths’ silent films were set to music will the help of instruments. Both the films were presented during the festival as well as the work of word-e-scape- Workshops was presented and exhibited at the students’ schools. The workshops have been under the care of Eunice Martins, Laura Mello, Heidrun Schramm und Nicolas Wiese.
