YEFF! is a European youth film meeting and a growing network.
Yeff! offers a forum where young people from all over Europe meet and present their films on cultural diversity issues.
Yeff! aims to promote youth involvement in modern media.
The network consists of partners in more than 10 European countries and is constantly growing. Every two years a Yeff! film forum takes place in a different European city. Young people from all over Europe are asked to produce films on the topic of cultural diversity and to present their work at the Yeff! forum. Participants are encouraged to reflect on their images in modern media, to learn how to represent their own realities and to present their visions to a broader public.
YEFF! is aiming:
* To encourage young people to learn film language and aesthetic principals of film and television while encouraging them to develop their voice.
* To ask the entrants to reflect on the experiences and perception of the issues of “cultural diversity” from their individual point of view.
* To support especially young people with intercultural experience or experience of migration.
* To offer opportunities to meet and connect with other young filmmakers in a unique and specialised forum and to build up a European network of future filmmakers and journalists.
Why selecting films on issues of cultural diversity?
We want to present the issues young people present in their films and their experiences of cultural diversity. We especially want to promote work from young people whose voices might normally be regarded as marginal and who don't have direct access to media institutions. We hope to discover a fresh body of work from new voices and reveal new truths from a spectrum of cultures across the new Europe.
The impact of media literacy
Young people experience film and TV as a means of communication within their everyday lives, but they are not restricted to being passive consumers. With access to affordable video production and postproduction equipment, they have the means to become empowered producers. Understanding media and films is promoted by practising filmmaking and experiencing television production.
The Yeff!-Activities
The main Yeff! event is the film forum. It takes place in a different European country every two years. The first film forum took place in Germany in 2005, the second one was in France 2007, and will be followed by Sweden in 2009. The participants are chosen by national juries in each country. During the event, young people from all over Europe meet, show their films, visit workshops, shoot and edit together, and participate in debates with each other and with professional filmmakers. Sightseeing trips, parties and film screenings round off the program.
Between the forums, the network partners work with young people on national and local levels. They provide a learning environment which encourages technical expertise as well as social participation and cultural empowerment. The partners are consistently in touch with each other to plan further events. Workshops throughout the years will be offered on European level soon.
We are also constantly looking for more partners in Europe and we are planning smaller events for the years in between the large forums.
