The Heinrich Böll Stiftung will be working this year with the “Young Palestinian Filmmakers Society”, which is based on 10 years experience in working with Palestinians youth and providing them with audiovisual medium as positive means for self expression and constructive way of participation in rebuilding a more healthy society. During those years, a hands on filmmaking training course was conducted, and a number of 23 groups of Palestinian youth of both sexes went through the course and successfully produced 23 short films. The society was launching the first International Filmmakers Festival in Palestine last year in October 2011.
The project will concentrate in training and providing consulting services to 20 documentary filmmakers from Palestine and the Arab region, through two workshops in Cairo and Leipzig. Experienced tutors from abroad and the region have been engaged to the program. The trainees will produce short films 4-5 minutes. The films will be documenting the social media in the Arab world in light of the Arab Spring.
Specifically the selection criteria for the proposed projects will be based on how their content is related with the topics of:
• Democratic Participation
• Gender Democracy,
• Freedom of Expression,
• Climate Change,
• Dialogue and conflict