The FILMS are online

 Please check out the output of this whole process and feel free to add your comments.

https://vimeo.com/109926791

THE END

Every story has an end: this one has a happy ending because three films between 5 and 8 minutes have been created in a three weeks period. Three little stories of Battir full of meaning and understatement. Fatema Owainah found herself involved in this story which she'll be in charge to keep on going.

A full Gopro equipment has been entrusted to the local partner in order that the workshop can continue. AVS4You the editing program on which we worked, has been installed on the Battir Eco museum PC. Now what's necessary to do is raising funds to pay Fatima's wages as the responsible for the workshop.

Tomorrow we will show the result of the workshop and it's very likely that a lot of youngsters will ask for more! We've been aware from the start of the necessary sustainability of the project. Let's hope we find the means to make it.

In the meantime, here are some snapshots from the films:

THE THREE SHOOTINGS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED

Girl's group # 1: Niveen, Tasneem, Raneem, Ghazal and Raya completed their own shooting with interviewing Wisam OWINEH, junior manager at the Ecomuseum. He's the one who develops projects with partners and guide the visitors on the hiking trails. He's been asked by Niveen to talk about the Battir Ecomuseum concept and why there's nothing to see inside the museum like ancient photos of Battir he though can comment as a specialist.

The following day was dedicated to complete the Boy's shooting: Ala, Ahmad, Nagi, Ibraheem, Ameer and Waleed were on the starting blocks and even if we had to do some retakes, they were patient and focused.
We first met Ala's grand father - a former mathematics teacher - and Ala asked him about Battir irrigation system and how he lived the Nakba in Battir. A beautiful moment.

Yesterday was the second group of girls'turn. They had fixed everything with ATIDAL one of the councellers in the village council of Battir. She has inherited several olive fields all located in the buffer zone, beyond the railway track that separates palestinian from israelian territories. Her problem is that she has a long and dangerous way to go to reach them. Ghazal did the interview and filmed a few shots along with Razan, Sandy Dina and Jasmine.

We are now ready for phase 3, the editing itself.

BOYS' TURN

Yep. The boys' first shooting has been a lot of fun has you can imagine watching this photo taken from a special shot from the Battir's spring. We can assure that no harm has been done to any camera of any sort :-)

FIRST SHOOTING

Yesterday was an important step forward in the process since the two groups of girls had to finish their script. The one on picking olives and resistance will be very demanding in terms of logistic: they'll have to ask the participation of a family who will go to their olive field by a road that's blocked  before they can get to it.

The other group will make a film about Battir and its ecomuseum. Wisam who's used to hike with groups of visitors was precisely about to take one of them on trail 1. We then decided to film their depature and here's a  photograph taken from this very first shooting of this group.

TESTING AND PRACTISING

The second session for boys was dedicated to testing the tools and practising the art of interviewing. Everyone invests himself and utterly, here are their first try:

https://vimeo.com/107791290

A FEW SNAPSHOTS

Courtesy of the talented Fatima Owineh, here are a few photographs from the second session with the boys.

Please feel free to let a comment on this blog in whatever language you prefer. Thanks.

AND NOW, THE LADIES!

Back to the workshop introducing the ladies of Battir: Yasmin, Dina, Raneem, Niveen, Dania, Yara, Razan, Sandy, Tasneem and Ghazal were perfectly on time while we were not. Sorry for this wrong start but eventually our delay was of no consequence.
Thanks to Bader who welcomed them, Fatima and I had a few time more to set up everything.

I introduced the tools, they handed them one another then we split the group in two. The first one went outside to record their video selfie with the gopro camera while the other group started to think over the way they would deal with their film subject.

Once everybody was done, we switched the tasks and the other group made their selfie with the mini X. We had a good time together and we even fixed the second group's idea: it will be the portrait of a land owner whose olive trees were cut and his access refused to his parcel. The first group will work upon the 4 elements in Battir.

Here are the participants:

Thanks everybody for your investment.

WE'VE BEEN GETTING STARTED TODAY

After a few phone calls early this morning, everything was all set to getting started. First we met with the Headmaster of the school for boys and shortly after our arrival we were invited to meet the boys in a room next to the classes. There were 15 between 15 to 17 years old.

We (Bader, Fatima and I explained the goals of the workshop, the process and the sujects which were mostly leads for inspiration:

- Fear and anxiety
- The 4 elements: air, earth, fire and water
- A portrait or a self-portrait
- Resistance

The boys seemed to be enthusiast and we arrange our next meeting for the afternoon.

We then had an appointment to the school for girls where we also met 10 girls of the same age as the boys.
We gave the same informations to them and fix a date for the day after (tomorrow).

Back to the Eco Museum we had just enough time to arrange the meeting room and to go eating.

Like they promised, the boys were there on time and we've started by a reminder of the schedule, the viewing of film extracts I've been making and we asked each one to introduce himself like a video selfie (with the Canon mini X and the GoPro camera). They were very excited by the Canon.

While one group was making its selfie, the other was working on the subject they would like to choose.

At the end of the session everyone had his selfie and was ok with working either on a documenbtary film about Battir or on the threat of their scool by the wall.

Here are the participants:

To be continued.

We have all the necessary clearances

Second step in the administrative process: meeting with the school for boys'headmaster and getting the official clearances from the village council.

We went to the school for boys this morning and met with the Headmaster and several people I haven't been introduced with. I've been explaining the aim of the workshop and its needs in term of participants and availability. It will take place after school two hours a day in alternance with two groups. We discussed the method for getting the boys involved during the whole process which could be an issue due to its duration.

We will keep this in mind and try to hook them the faster we can by letting them using the tools as soon as possible.

We then went to the village council where Mr Abu Mohamed wrote an official request for clearance to the authority in Bethleem. It was sent by fax and seems to be a necessary formality but also a sure thing to obtain.

The session will begin the 1st of october.

To be continued. 

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Today was the first step in the project by meeting with both the director (Michel) and the manager (Mai) of the ECO museum of BATTIR. We've been trying to see the project on a practical level, mostly regarding the participants'profile. We agreed on gathering two groups of youngsters between 15 and 18, speaking a minimum of english. This latter constrain lead us to think about starting with the girls who seem to have a better english than the boys :-). We expect it will challange the boys to do better!

Mai and Michel organized a meeting with the headmistress of the school for girls, we met her within the next 30 minutes and got an agreement within the other next 30 minutes.
The workshop will take place in the meeting room of the ECOmuseum to allow a greater  freedom of speech and the best conditions for working on ideas.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the school for boys with WISAM (the other manager of the Ecomuseum and Guest house). We'll try to get the same kind of agreement with its headmaster.

The famous incredible efficiency of Battiris...

To be continued.

WELCOME

This blog will try to report the different stages of the first Video Workshop in Battir.

Battir is a village located near Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Famous for its millenary watering system, Battir succeeded in preserving its precious environment despite all the hurdles of the political situation.

Always creative in its resistance, when the village came aware that the separation barrier would threaten to ruin the landscape, several inhabitants came up with the idea of mapping the territory and to show the cultural and agricultural wealth of Battir.
They eventually won the Melina Mercouri prize with the project of the ECOmuseum and managed to get the protection of the UNESCO lately.

In this context, the youth of Battir has to face many problems like unemployment as one of the numerous consequences to live under a military control. The video workshop will try to help them expressing themselves with short films of all kinds.

This blog will report the process and hope you enjoy sharing it.

The VideoWorkshopTeam.