BALKANS BEYOND BORDERS Balkans Beyond Borders (BBB) is a nongovernmental organization formed by young professionals from Southeast Europe. Having its head office in Athens and official representatives (BBB Ambassadors) in all Balkan countries, the organization seeks to promote youth mobility and youth cooperation in the Balkans through “dialogue”, “interaction” and “innovative learning”. Believing that the region’s socio -economic development requires stability, cooperation and modernization, Balkans Beyond Borders invests in the region’s young people. The organization through its activities aims to contribute to the region’s better future and Europeanization. Balkan Beyond Borders works towards the close collaboration between local festivals, film centers and film workshops in the Balkan region aiming to create an Inter- Balkan network able to promote efficiently the work of young artists of the region and beyond, in order to familiarize its audience to the Balkan culture and its diversity.
Goals o Promote intercultural dialogue among both on regional and Pan-European level o Boost regional cooperation in the Balkans o Develop the understanding of cultural diversity in the Balkan region and beyond o Contribute to the integration of the Balkan Region in the EU o Unify young people from the region towards a better common future o Develop young people’s practical skills and knowledge, promoting Balkan talents and creativity o Institutionalize an internationally recognized thematic short film festival that takes place every year in a different Balkan city and serves as a meeting point for audience and creators o Contribute to the exchange of documented knowledge through interaction and innovative ways of learning o Develop a network of skilled individuals, who cooperate, share ideas and actively contribute to the Balkans Beyond Borders idea o Act as a platform for the familiarization of young Europeans with the Balkan culture and its diversity through the spectrum of a common European Identity The Network Balkans Beyond Borders has invested time and effort in creating a network of young active people from the Balkan region and beyond in order to support and promote the BBB idea in the EU. In this endeavor that is BBB, we wish to actively engage as many interested individuals as possible in order to promote BBB and its goals in their country/region by communicating our activities, as well as providing ideas and taking up the responsibility to realize them. At the moment there are 13 BBB Ambassadors and this number is dynamic. Withstabilizedpartnershipsintheregion, BBBhasastrongimpactintheregionmotivating young people at all levels: EU identity, culture, interaction, innovation and creativity.
BBB FESTIVAL BBB’s flagship activity is the organization of an annual thematic short- film festival, “Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival”. One of its kind, Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival travels every year in a different Balkan city tackling topics of contemporaneity and focuses on new regional productions, functioning as a stage of supporting and promoting young and emerging filmmakers. Focusing on the Art of short film and new media, it celebrates Balkan diversity and engages audience and creators to reflect on pressing contemporary issues through the medium of short film. The festival is framed by other cultural events like photo exhibitions, visual art events, live bands, open discussions, etc. BBB through its unique festival promotes active citizenship in the Balkans highlighting cultural diversity and active citizenship. BBB through its thematic motivates creators to perceive diversity creatively while providing the ground for promotion of young film makers.For its innovative ideas towards engagement to youth mobility, BBB has been awarded by the EU Parliament in 2011 with the 2nd European Charlemagne Youth Prize. The journey of BBB Festival in the Balkans: 1. 2010- Belgrade, Solidarity and cooperation 2. 2011- Athens- Who’ s afraid of the big bad crises? 3. 2012-Tirana- Talk to me: multilingualism and communication 4. 2013- Bucharest- Reinventing Bridges 5. 2014- Sarajevo-Dare to Repeat 6. 2015- Thessaloniki- Living in... City-mmetry
FESTIVAL 2015 Konstantina Kotzamani’s “Washingtonia” gets ΒΒΒ Best Film 2015 award at the 6th Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival in Thessaloniki. The 6 th Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival supported by European Fund for the Balkans had the opportunity to present for one more time films of great quality and select winners that their work stands out in terms of quality, approach and thematic. Audience of diverse nationalities and ages filled the venue of the Festival, WE, from October 30 th to November 1 st and had the chance to interact at the Festival’s events and communicate with the film makers. With 30 films at the Competition Part the Jury of the 6th Balkans BBB consisted of MarijaMilovanovic (Austria), Dimitris Savvaidis (Greece) and Ares Shporta (Kosovo*) decided to give the Best Film 2015 award to a female director whose film convinced them with its visual poetry, the creative way of story- telling and it’s very moving connection between a tree, a city and love. As MarijaMilovanovic states, in “Washingtonia” there is a special bond between the head a nd the heart, not only for humans. The head tells you what you have to do, but nevertheless…the heart will take what it wants. The audience had active role at the Festival and voted for its best film which was “Seven Steps” by Giannis Karydas, Greece which won the Audience Prize 2015. Taking into consideration the good quality of this year’s films presented at the festival, the Jury gave “Special Mentions” to three other films:«Golden Shot», an animation by GokalpGonen, Turkey, “1973” a documentary by Stefan Ivancic from Serbia and the film “Enemies”, a Comedy/Drama by HristoSimeonov from Bulgaria. BBB Prizes were a production by Solid3D Printing based on the artwork of Marietta Lyriotaki and the Best Film and Audience Prize get 500€ and 100€ accordingly. 6 th Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival with subject Living in… “City - mmetry” motivated and inspired the audience not only through the films but also through its parallel activities: BBB Photo Marathon, BBBWalk, BBB Dialogues (Round Table and Workshop), BBB Photo Display and BBB Photo shooting event. The audience had the opportunity to interact and get to know better the Balkans. The Screenings of the weekend were followed by two live bands with Balkan influences, ChalkinaIchochromata (Brass Sound) and BaiLdSa filling the venue with more than 700 people. Winning films will be screened in other events and activities of the organization as well as at other collaborating Festivals. BBB continues its journey in the Balkans having its next stop and topic to be announced soon. For more information check www.balkansbeyondborders.eu , Facebook (Balkans Beyond Borders) and Twitter (BalkansBB).
Photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153723403673850.1073741843.166887403849&type= 3 More information regarding the Festival: http://www.balkansbeyondborders.eu/category/film-festival/film-festival-2015/ WORKSHOPS BBB works towards personal and professional development of the youth through the organization of interactive thematic workshops having as main focus the use of short film either through the creation- production or the use of short film as tool of innovative ways of learning. At BBB workshops yYoung individuals up to 30 years old from different countries of Europe meet in different cities of the Balkan region to Live Experience and Create Together. The workshops take place under the umbrella of the annual theme of the Festival and trigger discussion, inspiration and creation . The workshops are BBB’s real ground of cooperation and solidarity. Workshops take place during the Festival as parallel activity.
ACADEMIC SEMINARS Education and innovative learning through short films and audiovisual means are one of the main goals of BBB. Through the use of short films Balkans Beyond Borders organizes interactive academic seminars and conferences targeted to students of political sciences, European and Balkan Studies and other fields. The BBB seminars give students the opportunity to come closer to the ‘Balkans’ as an academic field of study and a subject of politics while becoming familiar with the social and cultural public space of the region. At this endeavor it cooperates with institutions such as universities (University of Piraeus), think tanks and other organizations. It also takes part in research programmes and personal and professional development projects such as the programme “Seeing other countries”. CONTACT Balkans Beyond Borders (BBB) Non-Governmental Organisation Praxitelous 26, 10561, Athens, Greece T: +210 6426580 Μ : 6976404695 www.balkansbeyondborders.eu info@balkansbeyondboders.eu
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