Invitation to Participate: True Stories Market

WESTERN BALKANS – The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Dialogue Southeast Europe is partnering with Sarajevo Film Festival in efforts to support the True Stories Market which will take place this year from 13 August to 20 August 2021.

The True Stories Market, which is part of the Dealing with the Past program, is a unique event that connects filmmakers with organizations or individuals who document and research the Yugoslav war of the 1990s aiming to bring true stories to a broader audience. The aim is to create a platform where these individuals/organizations and filmmakers can meet and collaborate to provide public awareness through the power of cinema.

After a pre-selection process, five stories will be invited to participate in the True Stories Market workshop during the Festival in August. A committee will choose a winner who is going to receive an award of 10.000 Euro in the name of the producer and production manager Branko Lustig (“Schindler’s List”). For examples of selected stories, click here to have a look at proposals that were formerly invited to the True Stories Market festival.

Examples of subjects for stories to be submitted are:

  • Accounts of war-time rape victims and their life after the war.
  • Missing persons and open trials; criminal proceedings and convictions; law on amnesty and pardon for perpetrators.
  • War refugees and displaced people and their return / Reuniting with the place and / or re-meeting perpetrators of the crime.
  • Psychological consequences of war; impact on life and surviving family members (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, victims’ obsessive-compulsive behavior).
  • Stories of reconciliation and optimism: People of different backgrounds (emphasis on national identity) saved each other’s lives; returnees; completed trials; positive experiences of younger generations in dealing with the past.
  • Life in a place where there was no war versus the experience of war, impact and consequences.
  • Wartime childhood; personal accounts of people who were children during the war, their stories, perspectives, and experiences of war.
  • Impact and consequences of war on all segments of life, open wounds, dialogue, coexistence, trauma of children born during or after the war and how to move forward?

The preferred format for submitting proposals is a one-page text with all basic information about the story. Additional material like photos or links to video footage can be sent as well.

All proposals should be sent by email to Saša Vasić: sasa.vasic(at)fes-soe.org. Deadline for submitting proposals is 1 July 2021. 

To access the Call for Applications click the button below, or click here to visit the information at Friedrich Ebert Stiftung website.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

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