SPOTLIGHT ON: BORDERS PROJECT

 

Dublin and Belfast 19th-24th February 2007

For 6 days in February 3 youth groups, from Paris, Belfast and Dublin, came together to culturally interact through the art of film making. The aim of this project, which was initiated by the Cinema du Palais to expand their youth outreach programme, was to bring young people together to make a short film on the subject of borders. The film was shot, both, in Dublin and Belfast while a lot of the pre-production and the post-production was completed in Paris.

 

The Irish Film Institute became involved in the project as facilitators – making the initial contact with the Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast. We approached Bradog, the North Inner City Youth Centre, and asked for a suitable group to participate in the project. The objective was for these 3 groups to collaborate over the following 6 days and interact throughout the process of making a short film.

 

The proposed story that was created for the film was about the troubles in Northern Ireland during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Each day was spent either working on scripts, shooting on location or attending special events that, both, the IFI and Bradog had organised. One very special event that was arranged was a screening of the Irish film Adam and Paul. This was attended by write/actor Mark O’ Halloran, who kindly provided a Q&A afterwards.

The final night party in Dublin, which was hosted by Bradog, was thoroughly enjoyable and gave everybody involved an opportunity to watch what had been worked on so far. A sense of achievement was felt by all and it was obvious that friendships had developed between the participants.

Important links were forged between the QFT, Bradog and the IFI, which in turn laid the foundation for further exploration of ideas and future youth projects.

Deirdre Quinlan

To find out more on the European Borders Film Project please visit: http://irishbordersproject.blogspot.com/
http://www.queensfilmtheatre.com/outreach.php