THE SOCIO-CULTURAL PROJECT CHILD RIGHTS AND CINEMA

FILM FESTIVAL

FACING CHILDREN

A PROJECT PROPOSED BY

SIGNIS ASSOCIATION

In collaboration with UNICEF

In 2006 UNICEF is celebrating its 60th anniversary.

Established by the General Assembly on December 11, 1946 and originally known as the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the UN Children's Fund has employed three approaches in discharging its mandate.

For the postwar period 1946 to 1950, the "emergency needs approach" meant swift action to meet the food, clothing, and health needs of children, particularly in Europe. As Europe recovers after the war, some countries believe UNICEF's job is over, but the United Nations General Assembly extends UNICEF's task to include working with children and families throughout the developing world. In 1953 UNICEF becomes permanent part of the United Nations. The UN General Assembly reaffirms and extends UNICEF's mandate indefinitely.

On the 20th of November 1959 the UN General Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, focusing on children's rights to education, health care and good nutrition.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989 is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. The Convention has several "foundation principles" that underpin all other children's rights. These include: non-discrimination; best interests of the child; right to survival and development; and views of the child.

Convention on the Rights of the Child

A CHILD HAS:

the right to live ARTICLE 6

the right to have an identity ARTICLE 8

the right to have a family ARTICLE 5

the right to a protective environment. ARTICLE 9

the right to education ARTICLE 28

the right to freedom of expression ARTICLE 13

the right to protection against any form of discrimination, ARTICLE 19

the right to freedom from child labour ARTICLE 32

the right to protection in war. ARTICLE 38 the right to freedom from discrimination ARTICLE 2

SIGNIS ROMANIA ASSOCIATION

In collaboration with UNICEF

IS PROPOSING A PROJECT

THAT PROMOTES

THE CHILD RIGHTS

THROUGH MOVIES

SIGNIS is a non-governmental organization that includes members from 140 countries. As the "World Catholic Association for Communication", it brings together radio, television, cinema, video, education, , and new technology professionals. SIGNIS was created in November 2001 from the merger between two organizations (Unda, for radio and television; and OCIC, for cinema and audiovisual) that were both created in 1928. Its very diversified programmes cover fields such as the promotion of films or television programmes (juries at important festivals: , , , , …), the creation of radio, video, and television studios, production and distribution of programmes, supplying specialized equipment, training professionals…

SIGNIS has consultative statutes with UNESCO, Ecosoc (United Nations in and New York), the . SIGNIS is officially recognized by the Vatican as a Catholic organization for communication.

SIGNIS ROMANIA since its creation in 2003, has set as its goal to promote audiovisual production, to organize trainings and seminars and to represent the catholic media on national and international level.

The Film Festival “Facing Children”

The Film festival is part of a broader project, initiated by SIGNIS ROMANIA, consisting in the main following activities:

• Artistic and documentary films festival focused on children’s rights • Workshops on video creativity for underprivileged teenagers • Trainings and debates for social assistance professionals on how to use the artistic video productions as a working tool

The project, as it is now, is a development of the first edition of the film seminar “Facing Children”, organized by SIGNIS Romania during last November. Its uniqueness resides in the fact that two very attractive professional domains, apparently with no particular link between them, are matched: media (the film making) and social protection.

The main objective of the project is the children’s rights’ promotion through quality film productions.

SIGNIS ROMANIA in partnership with UNICEF is organizing the film festival “Facing children”, which will take place from 15th to 20th of November, in and from 5th to 15th of December a touring festival will tour in Iaşi and Timişoara.

The Festival will focus the attention of the public on children rights, through three main sections:

FORUM - selection of 10 fiction films on a social theme, which won prizes in international competitions and were also awarded by SIGNIS. The screenings of the fiction films will be followed by debates with the directors and specialists in child protection. The audience will be made sensitive to the issues debated and will be stimulated to get involved in solving the problems. The public debate can become a source of pressure and of social support for the teenagers at risk. The message of the film can inform, convince and educate.

RAINBOW - a competitive section of social documentaries focused on children (12 hours of competition are planned);

The screenings of documentaries will be included in an international competition. The staff will elaborate the competition rules and will identify documentaries (40-50) to be included in the pre-selection. The jury of the pre-selection will be nominated, including three film reviewers or cinema people. This jury is in charge of screening all the documentaries received for the competition, out of which they will choose 12 (or 12 hours of documentary film, of different length). The staff will nominate the jury members for the competition. Three prizes will be awarded for best documentary, for best subject and the audience award. The competition will be opened and closed by screenings of international awarded documentaries such as Born into brothels (USA, 77 Oscar), The devils miner (, 2005) or other.

By presenting facts and information (through documentaries or features) prejudices that the audience has on a minority group can be overcome. This can also become a way to create a source of pressure and of social support for the teenagers at risk.

CHILD BUSTER - a section of movies for children, where 5 fiction or animation films for children, a selection of 10 short animation-films and 3 films in retrospectives will be screened. Before each movie, the short-films produced by the teenagers during the workshops will also be screened. The screenings will be followed by different activities for children - drawing the favorite movie characters or creating picture stories on children’s rights and then learn how to animate the drawings. SIGNIS ROMANIA will collaborate with the Art Museum for implementing the activities with children.

SPECIAL EVENTS DURING THE FESTIVAL:

1 Top Ten cartoons for children’s rights produced by UNICEF

The program of the festival will include one or two screenings of the same movie, so that the audience should have the opportunity to watch most of them. The screenings will be programmed in different cinema halls: the cinema Hall of the French Institute in Bucharest the Studio Cinema Hollywood Multiplex

Objectives:

to promote children’s rights through movies and movie making; to provide opportunity for children/teenagers at risk to express themselves through photography and video productions and to make known their vision on children’s rights to the public and to the decision makers of the Romanian society; to foster the collaboration in the field of education between cineastes/cinema men, social-workers and psychologists.

Target groups:

marginalized children and teenagers specialists in the area of child protection NGOs and Child Protection Authorities students of the Faculty of Sociology and Social Care, Bucharest, Romanian and European cineastes Festival audience (about 2.000 people in Bucharest)

Timetable:

The preparation of the Film festival will start in February. The Festival will take place in Bucharest, between the 15th and the 20th of November.

A symposium on film and children’s rights, 20th of November, The World Day for Children

On the 20th of November, in the closure of the Festival, a symposium will be organized by SIGNIS and UNICEF. The debates are meant to focus on the better knowledge and understanding of children’s rights. Bonding the abstract and technical information to the sensitive presentation of children’s rights through movies and story telling, the organizers of the symposium want to establish pre-requisites for an efficient communication of these rights. At the debates and presentations, besides specialists and general audience, representatives of children and teenagers will also be involved.

• The debates will start from the themes of the movies presented during the Festival – fiction films that won Signis or ecumenical prizes and documentaries – and they will focus on the analyze of the actual situation in Europe and especially in Romania, on how children’s rights are observed compared to how they are related in the movies;

• There will be a short presentation of the situation of children’s rights in Romania, made by a representative of Child Protection Authorities;

• European Cineastes - either producers or directors of the movies will be invited to share their experience, the reason of choosing a subject focusing on children’s rights and to discuss the impact of their films especially on a young audience;

• The project “Facing children” will be presented to the audience as well as similar projects of foreign organizations, discussing the need and the impact of using movies and/or photography in art therapy or social work. The final report of the symposium will be based on the debates.

Objectives of the Symposium:

• to promote children’s rights through movies and movie making; • to foster the collaboration in the field of education between cineastes, social-workers and psychologists and to encourage innovative practices and educational materials in the field of social care and psychology; • to start building up a network of specialists concerned with media education and film therapy in Romania

Beneficiaries: • 20 marginalized children and teenagers • 60 specialists in the area of child protection from 10 NGO’s and Child Protection Authorities • 30 students of the Faculty of Sociology and Social Care, Bucharest, Iaşi and Timisoara • 20 cineastes • 20 media representatives • 50 general audience

Timetable:

The symposium will be prepared during the month of October and will be held on the 20th of November, The World Day for Children

The symposium is setting as its goal to reunite people from different fields of activity having the same goal: to promote children’s rights. Specialists in the field of child protection as well as in areas that are linked up to it, such as doctors, teachers, justice or police representatives as well as church representatives, have as main concern the observance of children’s rights. Media representatives are those who inform the general audience. They have to deliver the information to the audience, without hampering or misinterpreting it. The audience is the one having power to support the observance of these rights. The movies – fiction films or documentaries – are a way to inform the audience about children’s rights.

During the debates, the following aspects will be assessed:

1. To what extent children, as well as the general public, are aware of children’ rights? 2. Who is responsible for the promotion of these rights? (identification of different communication channels, having different roles in the decision making process) 3. Which are the ways for these rights to be promoted? (surpassing the stage of considering mass media as an informal communication network) 4. Can the art video production be considered as an effective way of promoting the child’s rights? 5. Can the films be used as working tools by child protection specialists? 6. How can the films improve their impact on the general public? 7. Who can help to the film impact increasing? 8. Which are the most effective ways of transmitting the core message of the film?

Starting points for the debates will be as follows:

1). The rapid changes in the media offers: a new communication space is emerging, where active and multimedia customers are dominant and where interactive media is required (A few researchers suggested that the 21st century marketing will be based on interactive multimedia. Rust and Olever, 1994)

2). The role of the art therapist: The art therapist’s interventions cover a wide range of aspects: from a pedagogical endeavor (learning the minimal technical skills) to the analysis or even creation of a video production, with the effects of self knowledge and trauma annihilation (means of expression analysis through films)

The organizers intend to establish and maintain interdisciplinary communication networks and NGO individuals representing common interests within a certain social category and to define and activate the notion of change agents – professionals trying to influence the decision making process.

The participants to this symposium will fill in assessment/evaluation forms during the event. These forms will offer the possibility for the participants to make suggestions for the year 2007 edition of the Festival.

Results of the Symposium

• Debates on children rights in the films presenting during the festival • Creating a data base of specialists involved in the festival and symposium • At least 3 presentations of the present situation about children’s rights in Romania in other European countries • Presenting similar projects from the European Union • Sharing of experience • Evaluation questionnaires of the Symposium • Promoting children’s rights among 200 participants • 2 Television Stations • 3 Radios • 5 written press institutions that will participate in the Symposium

TOURING FESTIVAL

One of the sections of the festival will tour in three other Romanian cities. A selection of 7 movie programs, including the awarded teenager’s movies, the awarded documentaries, the animation films produced by UNICEF, 2 fiction movies and two documentaries will be presented in three Romanian towns: Iaşi and Timişoara. The screenings will be followed be debates, discussing how children’s rights were treated by the cineastes.

The initial contacts with the city halls and with NGO’s from Iaşi and Timişoara will be made during April and May. Two of the team members will go to each city to determine where the screenings will take place and to sign Partnership Agreements with the Local authorities, if they are interested in the project. In each country, a local coordinator will be hired. He/She will be in charge of the local information and awareness campaign and of the organization of the local screenings and debates with NGO’s and CPLA (Child Protection Local Authority) members. The preparation of the touring festival will start at least three months before the activity, and will go on starting from September until December.

The objectives of the touring festival are:

• to promote children’s rights through movies and movie making; • to provide opportunity for children/teenagers at risk to express themselves through photography and video productions and to make known their vision on children’s rights to the public and to the decision makers of the Romanian society; • to foster the collaboration in the field of education between cineastes, social-workers and psychologists and to encourage innovative practices and educational materials in the field of social care and psychology; • to start building up a network of specialist concerned with media education and film therapy in Romania

Beneficiaries: 150 marginalized children and teenagers 300 specialists in the area of child protection 50 cineastes and media representatives 15 NGO’s and three CPLA 300 students of the Faculty of sociology and social care, in Iasi and Cluj festival audience (about 200 people in Iasi and Timisoara, among which are also parents)

Timetable The preparation period will last from September to November. The initial contacts and preliminary visits will be made in April, May. The Festival will tour during the month of December, for two/three days in each city.

Results of the Touring Festival

• A touring section of the Festival Facing Children, which will include 7 movie programs, from animation to fiction and documentaries. • Film screenings, followed by public debates, which will be held in Iaşi and Timişoara. 2 Romanian cities where the Touring Festival will be present. • 2 Partnership conventions signed with the Regional Council from Iaşi and Timişoara. • Promoting children rights among 1.000 participants • Screening 30 video-productions of marginalized children • 7 debates organized in each town • Creation of a network of specialists that will use film as a working tool • 2 television stations and 3 local radio stations - partners

Information and awareness campaign

Description of the activity:

The information and communication campaign will include: Information and awareness campaign in Bucharest, Iaşi and Timişoara Partnership agreements with radio stations and television station to promote the festival and to initiate programs on children’s rights Creation of a website for the festival A creative contest for children, promoted through the Ministry of Education. Children between the ages of 7-11 will be asked to write a story and to add one or two drawings on the theme of top ten children’s rights.

Objectives:

• to promote children’s rights through story telling, movies and movie making; • to promote the Film festival “Facing children” on national level, but especially in Bucharest, Iaşi and Timişoara

Beneficiaries: • Children • Specialists in child protection and teachers

Timetable

The preparation of the information and awareness campaign will be made between May and July, when partnership agreements will be made with national and local media; the website will be launched in June. The media campaign will have its peak during the festival itself, on the 20th of November. Local media campaigns will continue during the month of December, when the touring festival will reach the towns of Iaşi and Timişoara.

Results of the information campaign

• Awareness campaign in national and local media • A radio and a video ad, promoted on radio and tv • A website • Children stories on Top ten children’s rights