Sharing experience

Youth project wins film prize

The Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival has just announced the list of award winners for 2008. One of the prizes went to the short film “Les Ombres qui me traversent” which was supported by the Youth Initiative networking projects.

In Romania, 15 August is a huge religious and popular celebration. Fourteen-year-old Alia works with her mother in the bar at the heart of the celebration. Her young brother Vlad hovers around them. The three of them will be caught up in the surrounding chaos... encounter

This is the synopsis of a film created during an encounter between French and Romanian young people in the isolated Romanian village of Voinesti. The script was written by one of the French participants, drawing on personal impressions from Romania and writing sessions held with the Romanian participants during the preparatory phase of the project. The actors were young people from Voinesti and the story takes place in locations from their everyday lives: the disco, their homes, the church, etc.

The young Romanians were very surprised that a group of young French people was asking them to be actors, photographers, boom operators and so on for a film, but acknowledged that the project helped them to gain self-confidence and acquire new skills. For their part, the French group were very touched by the generosity of the Romanians’ welcome despite their isolation and lack of basic facilities. A photo album and a website tell the story of this adventure.

The short film was presented at the Romanian Cultural Centre in Paris (September 2007), at the Festival of Ouidah, Benin (January 2008), and in Voinesti (February 2008), before winning the prize for the Best First Short Film in the National Competition at the International Festival of Clermont-Ferrand (February 2008). The film will be also broadcasted on ARTE television.

French participant Emilie Carpentier, who directed the film, says:

“This project has completely changed my professional life, for I managed to make a dream come true, to great approval, and I met a solid team with whom I plan to continue exploring cultural exchanges revolving around cinema with new audiences.”

Find out more about the project:
www.lacabaneaimages.com


At the theatre	Theatre workshop

Shooting of a film	Rehearsal