This November 2021, the “Ithaka International and Media Festival” is travelling around Europe, from Italy to Greece, through the Netherlands, Hungary, and France. The events will be an occasion to showcase photographs, videos and podcasts produced by newly arrived young migrants in the frame of Speak Up! workshops.
Italy – October 29
Forma Azione is organizing 2 Festivals. The first one, “SPEAK UP! Media and Information literacy come strumento per dare voce ai migranti e favorire l’inclusione”, will be located at the San Fedele theatre of Montone, Umbria. This festival will start with the screening of the selected videos and podcasts produced by Speak Up beneficiaries, while media and migration experts will gather for the national experts meeting. This event is part of the larger festival, “Festa del Bosco of Montone” hosted by Umbria Film Festival (UFF).
Forma.Azione second festival, “Black Lives Matter, movimenti per la Cittadinanza, reti di contrasto all’odio: quale il ruolo dei media e della cultura nel raccontare il cambiamento”, is taking place in the South of the country, in Lecce, as part of the Sabir Festival, organized by ARCI – Forma.Azione partner. Experts will discuss about the interactions between politics and media, debating how discrimination online is becoming systemic.
The Netherlands – 12 to 14 November
Common Frames is organizing the “Greet&Meet – stories of newcomers” festival on November 12, 13 and 14. The team will move around Utrecht with a Caravan equipped with a LED-screen animating films, podcasts and artworks produced by young migrants for young migrants. Podcasts and movies will be projected all day, every day, from 2pm to 6pm.
The event is itinerant: the first destination of the tour is Mosque Square (city center) on November 12, followed by Vechtclub XL on November 13, concluding at the Art Space, in De Nijverheid, on November 14. Common Frames will also present a further program as part of the main festival, “Le Guess Who?”, together with Radio Einstein, the partner organization. Every day at 4pm, a live talk show is leaving the floor open to Radio Einstein’s artists and Speak-Up!’s media makers to further discussions. The event is co-funded by Gemeente Utrecht (Utrecht municipality).
France – 13 November
ERIM is leading the “Speak Up Festival” in Lyon, France, On November 13. The event is taking place at Musée Gadagne and will start with a national experts meeting during which media and migration professional will discuss media production with young migrants as well as Speak Up Manifesto. It will be followed by the screening of the movies realized with and by the young migrants newly arrived in France. It will also be an occasion to listen to the podcast produced in the frame of the podcast workshops with Movement Up in the winter and Spring 2021, as well as to exhibit pictures from Speak Up Photo Competition. The event will be part of the “Images Migrantes” festival.
Greece – 26 to 28 November
KARPOS GR is coordinating the “Media for Inclusion” festival, co-financed by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, and part of the broader event “Athens Ethnographic Film Festival (Ethnofest)”, on November 26, 27, and 28 in Athens. In the first day, a team of media local experts will present the Manifesto of the project; the introduction will be followed by a panel discussion led by journalists reporting on current debates around refugees’ representation on media. The panel will then leave room for a young migrant working for “Migratory Birdsso”, a newspaper that exposes first-hand experiences of young refugees engaged in the media sector. On November 27, in collaboration with Ethnofest (Athens Ethnographic Film Festival) the team will screen the movies produced by the project’s participants which will be followed by a Q&A session and the awards ceremony. The last day of the festival is going to host a masterclass with the media trainers Maria Leonida and Maria Pesli, who will share their experience with the Speak Up! Media for Inclusion project and explain to artists and educators how to best integrate audiovisual productions in their workshops with refugees.
