INTERCULTURAL CAMP 'HOW DO I SEE YOU?' - Online Edition

The activities of the second meeting of the second generation of participants in the intercultural camp "HOW DO I SEE YOU?" which is a joint project of DokuFest and Free Zone have been completed. This project, funded by the European Union office, aims to create opportunities for intercultural exchanges between the youth of Kosovo and Serbia through an educational and comprehensive program to reflect their thoughts through the creation of audiovisual portraits in which they will have opportunities to express views about their peers. The project activities, among other things, promote the creation of narratives that address the intercultural issues faced by young people in Serbia and Kosovo through a space where ideas are exchanged and different opinions are respected, based on mutual respect. Through project activities young people have the opportunity to get to know each other through art and culture in a space free from hate speech and mutual prejudice. ‘Although digital transformation has facilitated access to data and information by speeding up communication with target audiences, simultaneously through new technologies, it constantly challenges professional journalism through so-called fake-news by inciting hate speech and building fake news full of prejudices and stereotypes about each other, often using facts packaged in ethnocentric narrative "said Eroll Bilibani, head of DokuLab , the education department of DokuFest adding ‘The idea for this project has been conceived for a long time, but now we have the opportunity, through the support of the EU to create opportunities for young people from both countries to create vis-nar-vis narratives against growing ethnocentrism and nationalism which is constantly promoted and disseminated by unethical media platforms that then find a place on the social networks of irresponsible individuals.’ Project implementation began in mid-March 2020, but the pandemic situation and circumstances hampered some of the project activities. However, together with the project partners we continued with the implementation of activities which were possible to be realized through the virtual space that enabled us to organize the activities. Despite the situation, the first group of participants from Kosovo and Serbia, managed to create the first audiovisual portraits of each other. The second group of young people consolidated in April 2021, and by May created audiovisual portraits after individual meetings that were facilitated by the project partners. This Tuesday and Wednesday we organized virtual meetings where young people were given space to display portraits of each other, based on the experience of individual meetings with each other "said Zana Arapi-Xheladini project manager and added" mutual respect of participants during these meetings can be a model of communication between the countries of the region, without hate speech and with respect for dissent.’ The project also foresees a physical gathering of both groups of participants to create works of art in the form of audiovisual portraits that will be exhibited at the jubilee edition of DokuFest in Prizren from 6 to 14 August 2021, as well as during the 17th edition of Free Zone in November this year in Belgrade. To watch all the videos created from all participants click here: Group 1 or Group 2 This grant is funded by the European Union and implemented by DokuFest, Fond B92, and Free Zone Film Festival