The 6th One-Minute Movie Festival for young people, “Do you have a minute?” will present 30 films that were fully designed and filmed by children from the primary schools in Bijeljina, Bosanski Petrovac, Derventa, Foca, Gradiska, Maglaj (Bocinja), Mostar (Blagaj), Prijedor and Zivinice (Dubrave). The festival takes place on the 24th of November in the City Theatre Jazavac Banja Luka, starting at 12 o’clock.
In addition to children authors, the Festival will be attended by about 200 pupils from the Banja Luka municipality, who will also get a chance to see the movies created by their peers and hear their messages.
Within the festival, the children will have the opportunity to socialize and to participate in a workshop on “The sustainable development goals by 2030”, which will provide them with the opportunity to contribute to the UN process of planning activities for the realization of these objectives. The Festival is organized by the NGO Genesis Project from Banja Luka in partnership with the UNICEF BiH. During the last year, the children designed and filmed a total of 100 films with the help of trainers from the Foundation for Creative Development, and out of them 30 movies were selected for the finals. These talented young people were given the opportunity to express their views on matters that concern them within a minute, such as “The world around us”, “Together against violence and prejudice,” “We want a better future!” etc. An expert jury will select the winners who will be awarded by symbolic prizes.
The methodology of one-minute movies by UNICEF in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the help of partners, is used as a new model of active involvement of the children in dealing with the issues that concern them. The one-minute movies are recorded around the world under the auspices of the UNICEF. The International Festival of one-minute movies is held every year, at which in 2013 the children from Bosnia and Herzegovina also competed and a schoolgirl from Herzegovina, Ivana Susnjar has been awarded by one of the main prizes for her movie “My Way”.
The workshops, which resulted in the one-minute movies, are a part of the UNICEF’s project component in implementing the “Support to durable solutions of Revised Annex VII of Dayton Peace Agreement Implementation Strategy,” funded by the European Union in the amount of 7 million, while the funds in the amount of 1.1 million EUR was provided by the UNHCR, which is also the leading agency in the implementation of the project. The implementation of the project comprises seven partners, including UNICEF.
Project activities, including the one-minute movies’ workshops, have been implemented in 10 priority locations in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Brcko District, Bijeljina, Bosanski Petrovac, Derventa, Foca, Gradiska, Maglaj, Mostar, Prijedor and Zivinice, with the objective to assist at least 2,400 vulnerable displaced persons and returnees in BiH in finding solutions for social challenges they face every day. A primary objective of the project component, also known under the slogan “My place under the Sun”, which is implemented by UNICEF in cooperation with partners, is to, through various activities, ensure the social inclusion of vulnerable children from internally displaced and returning families and children from other vulnerable groups such as children with disabilities and the children living in difficult socio-economic conditions. In addition, the purpose of the project is to strengthen the capacity and engagement of government at the local level in order to have a social inclusion as a part of the municipal development plans.