Preliminary meeting: Ljubljana 17.- 19. April 2007

Rapport:

Attended by:

• Sara Bungartz /Film Arche Berlin/,
• Aleksandar Perovič /Balkan Black Box Berlin/,
• Emrah Gursel / Bilgi University – Community Volunteers Istanbul/,
• Benan Orhon / Bilgi University – Community Volunteers Istanbul/,
• Volkan Pirincci / Bilgi University – Community Volunteers Istanbul/,
• Želimir Žilnik / Terra Film Novi Sad/,
• Sara Matijevič /Playground production Novi Sad/,
• Sandi Puce / Mladi Most Mostar/,
• Aline Cateux / Mladi Most Mostar/,
• Tom Gomizelj / DZMP Krško/,
• Atej Tutta / Pozitiv Ljubljana/,
• Bojan Matjašič / Pozitiv Ljubljana/,
• Drago Pintarič /Pozitiv Ljubljana/

Topics of discussion, conclusions, …

1). Questions about organizational and logistic plans, and time schedule of the project realization.

1a). Organizational, logistic and financial aspects of the project and their realization according to a time schedule, briefing info and discussion plan:

The web page is operational, the first texts are ready for publishing, and there has also been some initial communication via the web page forum. The utility of the web page and communication via the forum need to be intensified. Forum can be used to attract other potential participants – groups and individuals. 

Informational preliminary meetings that were already executed were in Istanbul /January 07/ and in Berlin /February 07/. Yet to come are the informational preliminary meetings in Novi Sad and Mostar /April and May 07/. The preliminary meetings were attended by the members of the top coordination group of the project– Drago Pintarič, Želimir Žilnik and Bojan Matjašič meeting the representatives of the partner-groups from the cities where the meeting were held. The official preparation meetings that are to be attended by the representatives of the partners from all afore mentioned cities are expected to take place in Ljubljana /18^th and 19^th April 2007/, in Istanbul /16^th and 17^th June 2007/ and in Berlin /October 2007/   

Planned schedule of the exchanges: Istanbul 1^st July – 7^th July /application process is still underway/; Mostar 8^th – 15^th July; Novi sad 15^th – 22^nd July; Ljubljana: 23^rd July – 3^rd August 2007 and Berlin: 27^th October – 3^rd November 2007. A part of the exchanges will be executed in the form of a mobile project. Proposition /for the discussion/: The participants in the exchange would travel to Mostar by bus that would also take them to Novi Sad and from there to Ljubljana. The expenses of the trip from Istanbul to Ljubljana and the return of the groups to their countries would be discussed by the organizers of the exchanges /DIC – Pozitiv Ljubljana and Bilgi University Istanbul/ with their national agencies.

Conclusions:

The main discussion apart from the briefing and organizational situation of the project was to determine the ways of travelling of the exchange groups during the exchange. Because the Turkish group needs a relatively expensive transit visas for crossing the Bulgaria – if we would travel by bus – and the alternative option to travel by sea would include other problems, we have decided that all participants of the exchange would travel from Istanbul to Sarajevo by plane around 8th of July. We need to check the flights Istanbul – Sarajevo in that time and book the flight (around 50 passengers) as soon as the exchange in Istanbul is fully confirmed. 

1b). Financial framework:

The project received the initial donation from the European Cultural Foundation /25.000€/, it also received two donations for the exchange in Ljubljana /23.000€/ and the mobile exchange in Mostar – Novi Sad /24.000€/. Applications for the exchanges in Istanbul and Berlin have also been submitted. The partners were instructed that they should attain additional funds from state and local co-financiers for the exchanges taking place in their countries. That would be their contribution to the quality of the project.

The funds attained from the ECF would cover the expenses connected to the preparations for the project  that are not included into the expenses connected to the preparation meetings financed by the EU – Programme Youth. A part of the funds for the expenses connected to the execution of the final productions /material expenses, wages etc./ will be co-financed as well .

The funds allotted for individual exchanges will cover the expenses of the exchanges /accomodation, food/, 70 percent of the travelling expenses, a part of the programming expenses of the exchanges /wages of the head mentor of the exchange, expenses connected to the execution of the discussion, excursion, material expenses of the exchange etc./.

The missing part of the funds for the exchange is to be compensated for from other funds acquired by the partners in the project where the exchange is being held.  

The use of the funds acquired individually by the partners is at their discretion while there is a basic rule they have to consider: information about the funds and their investment into the project have to be available to the other partners in a transparent manner. It is desired that a part of the mentioned funds is allotted for the execution of the final productions that will be available to all partners after the project is completed. The specifics of having the material copyrights over the final productions at their disposal will be discussed by the partners on the basis of actual investments into specific productions and into the project in general. A consensus about the copyrights should be reached before the end of the project.    

Conclusions:

Individual exchange groups have to gain 30% of travel expenses connected with their exchange travels / because these exchanges are connected, the expenses of individual groups will be lowered … we need to discuss this with Natonal agency.

1c). Youth exchange – conceptual and organizational aspects of the exchange.  

The main activity of the exchange are research oriented video-workshops. In the workshop led by the head mentor Želimir Žilnik with the help of his assistants /members of the exchange with experience in working with video/ knowledge about video and documentary film will be passed to the participants in the exchange. Groups will be formed and sent to investigate individual themes from the social environments where the exchanges will be taking place.  

Apart from the video-workshop the integral parts of the exchanges will be the social and the educational parts. 

 As a part of the exchanges at least two lectures for young participants should be held. They are to be connected to the cultural or religious history of the country or the area where the exchange will be taking place and the second topic should be intercultural interaction (cooperation and conflict) between different cultures in the past and today. The lectures would present an introduction to the panel discussion to be organized as a part of each exchange where mentors, youth workers and experts would participate as well.

During each exchange there should be an excursion in the course of which the young participates would be presented with the history of the land connected to the theme of the exchange. The free time will entail the sightseeing tours of the city, organised fun activities for the young participants etc.

Conclusions:

Coordinators / hosts of individual exchanges have to organize short lectures / discussions, connected with the history of religion in their geographical space and also to present the current 'religious' situation in the field of intercultural dialogue. It would be good if the participants of the exchanges would be prepared prior the lectures, so that they could actively participate in the debate. For this purpose we will use the forum and the website where each hosting group should provide some general info about the city / region / religion.

Coordinators of individual groups have to provide the inormation about the position and teaching of religion and ethics in their state school system. Also this informatuon in form of short descriptions and texts has to be put on the website at least few weeks prior the start of the exchange. This will serve as an information for all the participants and project members.

1d). Other Organisational Questions: 

The question of insurance for the participants in the exchange. The participants must be insured during the time of the exchanges in accordance with the contract with the EU – Programme Youth. For the exchanges applied for in the year 2006 and in compliance with the previous programme the participants must be insured with the French insurance company AXA – European Benefits Administrators (EBA). For the exchanges in Istanbul and Berlin the insurance can be arranged thorough home insurance companies. The insurance policies are drafted for each individual participant and that is why the partners must submit accurate data about the participants in the exchange. 15^th June is suggested as the due date for the submission of the lists.

2. Web page – Contents and communication

2a). The introductory presentation of the internet page – basic contents

About the project, Partners, Cooperatives, Contacts, … The initiative for contributing to the content (CVs, logos, descriptions etc.) The functions of the internet page are informing, communication, archiving, evaluation.

2b). Presentation of the interactive abilities of the internet page (forum, bulletin board, theoretical texts).

Discussion about the themes of the forum – the participants entering the discussions on the forum. Once the next stage is reached – video research and filming – the open internet page will form a basis that could provide themes for films thus displaying the practical functionality of the page and the forum which is meant to entice the discussion about the themes and for organizational purposes.

Conclusions:

Some information still has to be updated on the website – info about partner organizations and CV-s of some of you project members. Some of you already know what you have to prepare and all of you will be reminded by e-mail after the May holidays. We discussed also other options / about archive of all media etc … / that will be processed when the need arises.

3. Video research and filming

            3a) Themes of video-research

Individual themes of the possible video-research already exist; there are also the concrete synopses. Individual coordinators and other participants in the exchange present their suggestions, discus them with others and maybe even form individual interest groups/teams.

Conclusions:

Individual themes and suggestions have been presented. We have concluded that certain things for which we have the opportunities should be filmed prior the exchange. This includes for example:

-          building of churches in Novi sad

-          problems of building of mosque in Ljubljana

-          problems of building the mosques in Berlin

-          filming of Islamic community and situation in Trbovlje

-          ... 

3b) Technical requirements of the project realization and the discussion about technical organizational and logistic support

The scope of needed technical equipment for the execution of the project is established / cameras, lighting equipment, editing stations etc./. The representatives of the groups explain which technical equipment is at their disposal and what they can contribute during the time of individual exchanges. Based on these information there can be an informed assessment of the accessible technological equipment and an assessment of how much equipment needs to be borrowed and where can it be borrowed from.    

Conclusions:

We have constructed a list of equipment available as follows and still have to update some:

Ljubljana:

-          Pozitiv: 2 X 3chip DV Camera, 3X editing computers (2 better, 1 older), 1 X shotgun MIC, 1 X boom pole + boom MIC, 1 X sony MC340 stereo MIC, 4 X hand mic

-          Atej: 1 X 3chip DV Camera

-          DPZM Krško (Tom): 2 X 3chip DV Camera

Novi Sad:

-          2 X 3chip DV Camera

-          ? editing

-          ? audio

Mostar:

-          2 X 3chip DV Camera

-          ? editing

-          ? audio

Berlin:

-          editing?

For now we have around 6-8 3chip DV Cameras available, we still have to see about other technical equipment. We also may need some lights and other props ... this we will resolve as filming will strart.

4) Theoretical part of the project and manners of evaluation:

4a) Theoretical part of the project – themes of discussions and contributions

The discussions would take place within the framework of individual exchanges. Young participants, mentors and individual experts from the social environments where the exchanges will be taking place will participate in the discussions. Larger symposiums will presumably take place in Berlin /November 2007/ and in Ljubljana /spring 2008/. They would be attended by the expert leaders – theoreticians actively involved in the project (through internet communication, by participating in panel discussions during the exchanges etc.), mentors, group coordinators, youth leaders etc.   

The themes and modes of communication that were already presented when the internet page was introduced will be reiterated in a concise form for the purposes of the introduction to the preparation of the theoretical part of the project. The themes suggested for the lecture and for discussions during the exchanges will be revisited as well.

These themes could also be connected to the themes to be tackled at the prospective symposium in Berlin. The proposed symposium in Berlin  was  presented by Aleksander Perovic.

We are also planning a concluding symposium where the project and its productions will be presented in whole. This should coincide with the time of the Slovenian presidency of the EU, in the spring of 2008.

At the time of the symposium a release of the publication about the project is envisaged. The publication will contain selected texts from the internet page and summarised discussions taking place throughout the duration of the project.

Conclusions:

Alexander Perovic, representative of Balkan Black Box festival and co-ordinator of symposium in Berlin has presented us some of the possible themes (as provided on the forum), that could serve as outlines for some segments of our practical research, but its main part is to stimulate the development of theoretical ideas and presentations in the project. Themes in Berlin will follow the general discussion, but the selection is left to the Balkan Black Box  (A. Perović and Zoran Terzič).

4b) Editing and publishing the publication

Conclusions:

Editing of publication will take place after the symposium in Berlin. Editorial board will consist of the group co-ordinators, representatives of BBB and ‘theoretics’ that co-operate in the project.

Part of the financial budget provided by EFC will be saved for the expenses of printing and publishing the publication, but we will still have to provide some finances for this, and for symposium that is planned to happen in Ljubljana in spring 2008.