CineWar 
Revolution
2022-3-HR01-KA152-YOU-000099934

Summary

“The best way to explain what we want to achieve through YE CineWar Revolution is to give an overview of how everything started. Our first project application CineWar started as a late-night discussion about different countries' cultural perspectives in the eyes of foreigners. It quickly shifted its focus to Osijek, a still-recovering city from the Homeland war that took place in the 90s, whose young people are struggling to find an unburdened, positive perspective on their life, and their future. However, this isn't a problem of only for Croatia and Osijek, but for other countries who still drag issues of the past into the current political affairs or are dealing with conflicts today. Through discussions, networking, and writing, we wrote CineWar Revolution which explores the topic of war and conflicts through the creative tools of film. We chose film as an educational tool since it is an art form that encompasses many dimensions and influences people's emotions most effectively. The goal is to shift the mindset on films being only an entertaining activity, to point out their power to encourage empathy, spark emotions and imagine ourselves in the shoes of others. Participants will not only realise this by watching a film but through creating one themselves.
The first YE was evaluated as a big success and we were amazed how positively participants opened themselves to discuss the topic of war. They offered and found solutions for themselves and their communities in an antiwar fight realizing the relevance of the ever-worldwide issues of war, violence, and their consequences. Furthermore, they developed new filmmaking skills while working on the shorts, and expressed their thought, ideas, and criticisms through the film frame that was exposed to others. They shared their work as much as possible, as that represented their experience on the project and their critical thoughts on this heavy topic. We want to achieve those things again, and in the process make fewer mistakes, involve all the partners and participants fully, and have a longer project period that will allow for the process of preparation, implementation, and dissemination to be richer and of higher quality.
More concretely, we want to fulfill the expressed needs of our participants for a better exploration and understanding of their countries' backstories. In the conversations with many participants and youth outside the project, the conclusion was that we cannot start building a better future for ourselves, and those around us, if we don't understand our past. It's not enough to discuss why war happens in general; we will focus on current conflicts in Europe and how it impacts our reality."