I would like to share with you the following English translation of a piece of news received from Youth of Peace Cooperation Circle, Yemen:
Laqta (footage) is a project that trains youth on producing short documentaries that promote tolerance, respect, understanding, moderation and religious freedom in Yemen. Yemen is a country torn by war; thousands of civilians have been killed, some of the country's precious heritage has been destroyed, and many infectious diseases are spreading rapidly across the country.
Despite the fact that the Yemeni civil war is less about sectarianism, and more about problems of state governance and just resource distribution, religion has been exploited by political powers to serve their agendas. This has led to sectarian divisions. Amid this turmoil, Youth of Peace decided to launch this initiative to fight sectarianism by promoting tolerance, respect, and understanding.
The opening ceremony of the Laqta project was attended by Mr. Ameen Juman - the Mayor of the Local Council and Ms. Ahlam Al-Masni - Head of Communication - International Organization for Migration. Mr. Ameen Joman expressed his appreciation of the efforts of Youth of Peace in rebuilding trust among the people of Yemen. Also, he expressed his optimism about the Laqta project highlighting the importance of promoting a culture of tolerance, coexistence and peace. He expressed that these are important pillars in the development and evolution of any society.
The first workshop under the Laqta project will provide training for 12 participants on the best practices of documenting stories. Also, it will teach them how to find the important stories that are worth filming and how to interact with the public. They be trained to sharpen their observation skills about what's happening around them and what they are going through personally, in order to form an independent view and a style of their own, and to tell their stories on the silver screen.
outh of Peace aims to produce two documentary films that would contribute to peace-building in Yemen, and afterwards will open the communication channels between the participants and the film industry experts to ensure the sustainability of the future production of films by the young participants. Additionally, Magic Land Cinema in the Libyan Center will display the two films for three days. The films will be uploaded on the organization’s YouTube channel and will be promoted for through social media to reach the maximum number of Yemeni people.
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Update:
Youth of Peace concluded the second phase of the "Short Documentary" project with the participation of 12 young men and women. The head of Youth of Peace, Mr. Anwer Dahak, said the participants were refugees, displaced people and residents of Sana'a. He pointed out that the second stage lasted for 15 days at a rate of 10 hours a day. He added that the third phase of the project will focus on the production of two documentary films on peace and the dissemination of concepts of tolerance and coexistence.
It is worth mentioning that the participants in the training workshop have learned new methods through which to form a view of the reality surrounding them and how to find the important stories that should be asked, when creating a cinematic to interact with the public. They are trained to enhance the accuracy of their observation of what is going on around them and what they pass personally, creating an independent perspective and style to tell their world stories on the silver screen. This will result in the production and filming of two documentary films that contribute to peacebuilding in Yemen, and channels of communication between participants and film industry experts have been established to ensure the continuity of youth work in the production. In addition, the films will be uploaded on our Vimeo channel and promoted through social networks to reach the largest number of people in Yemeni society.
