WITHOUT BORDERS Youth Cinema

2018: 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.

2017: 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.

WIHOUT BORDERS Workshops

2019:

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 Saarwo 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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2018: 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.

2017: 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.