East African Nights of Tolerance
Organisation: Amizero Kompagnie, Rwanda
Where: Kigali & Huye, Rwanda
When: June 2012 – November 2012
Summary: Established in 2005, Amizero is Rwanda’s first contemporary dance platform. Building upon their reputation for innovation, their project East African Nights of Tolerance will see a week long festival of workshops and performances using dance to promote tolerance, peace and community cohesion. By bringing together dancers from a variety of East African countries, the project intends to build a network which will develop and grow as a focal point for contemporary dance in the region.
Voices in Peacetime – Her-Stories of Resilience & Hope
Organisation: Viluthu, Sri Lanka
Where: Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Kurunegala & Moneragala, Sri Lanka
When: April 2012 – November 2012
Summary: Viluthu’s work focuses on promoting women’s public and political participation, in order to promote democracy and strengthen civil society. For the Culture and Conflict programme Viluthu will travel to four locations in Sri Lanka, working with women’s organisations and peers to document stories of women affected by the war, to create a cross-ethnic archive that enhances the voice and space for women as agents of change. These stories will be captured using a variety of artistic methods and the documentation will be captured on a website in three languages, as well as displayed in exhibitions to be held in 5 major cities across Sri Lanka.
Bacha Bulletins
Organisation: Laajverd, Pakistan
Where: Lahore & Islamabad, Pakistan
When: March 2012 – August 2013
Summary: Founded in 2007 by a group of young architects, artists and designers, Laajverd runs awareness-raising/development projects using performance and print media. Their project Bacha Bulletins will engage young people from different communities within Lahore and Islamabad, encouraging them to explore their surroundings following the various economic, political and cultural upheavals that have challenged their sense of security. Chai sessions will stimulate storytelling and photography workshops will encourage the young people to look at their surroundings with a renewed perspective. Working alongside an artist these images will be used with the children’s stories to develop characters and events which will become a comic book and comic strips for a local newspaper. The stories will also be brought to life on radio, to be broadcast on Laajverd’s online radio station Aam Awaam.
zim.doc
Organisation: Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe
Where: Harare, Zimbabwe
When: May 2012 – June 2013
Summary: The Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe (WFOZ) aim to increase women’s participation in the audiovisual industry, as well as bring women’s issues to the attention of the public. WFOZ’s project zim.doc will develop the skills and capacity of a group of aspiring women filmmakers, resulting in the production of a web-based documentary which addresses Zimbabwean social life and the lives of female citizens, and which explores new formats for documentary storytelling and the representation of collective memory. By engaging with the public via the internet and screening events, and presenting themes of common shared experience, zim.doc will get people talking about issues that affect the process of national healing.