yeffswed2

young european film forum

If any country in the world was a 32mm reel for making films, it would be Sweden. My work trip to Sweden was a once in a lifetime door opening experience to different cultures and raw guerilla filmmaking, courtesy of YEFF (Young European Film Forum).

Myself along with three others were invited to participate for Northern Ireland in this year’s film festival in Gothenburg, Sweden.

I took the role of group leader for the Irish team. My job was to facilitate workshops based around the knowledge of using editing software and camera equipment, and also helping out and aiding any other participates with their own project, anything from translation to editing shortcuts to lighting an interview correctly.

As a group leader I was able to interact and teach these skills to participants from other countries.

Every group participating in YEFF 09 had to make their own film and Sweden (Europe) was the perfect back drop in which to do this. As everyone was in unfamiliar waters we had to think together in order to complete our film tasks,... and we were simply unable to run to a store room and gather some lights or sound equipment, there wasn't a store room!

Sweden showed us a raw guerilla filming tactic that every participant had to deal with. This in itself was a great experience for anyone trying to crack the film world. When you’ve only got a camera, some daylight and a brain, your imagination really runs wild!

This cannot be taught anywhere else but YEFF and that’s what I’ve personally brought home with me – a unique view of not always following the filmmaking rules, as sometimes thinking on your feet benefits the film more.

A bonus of the trip is the meeting and staying in contact with the other groups that participated, to share and swap movies for personal and broadcast use.

We are still in contact to this day and I hope to be so for many years to come.

Philip Matier

Yeff! Sweden 2009 took place from July 15th to July 29th in Göteborg, Alingsås and Umeå. YEFF! Young European Film Forum does exactly what it says on the tin, it's a bi annual event that brings young people from all over Europe to discuss and present their films.

YEFF! Says it wants to promote cultural diversity and there is no better way in my opinion to do this than through watching films people have made about where they live.

Katarina Resek from Slovenia made a documentary about immigrants from Ex-Yugoslavia in Ljubljana. Although it was a very colloquial film dealing with particular issues from her country, everyone in the audience was able to relate to the issues shown; the ability to completely separate oneself from another group of people, be it due to race, religion or nationality, and through this creating a different identity, in the documentary this new identity was created with fashion and music.

The young Belgian group explored the theme of cultural diversity in Brussels by visiting and interviewing different types of hairdressers and exploring the different hair of different people.

Both the people and the films of Lithuania were interesting and inspirational. As I listened to their stories I tried to understand the politics of their country. I was fascinated hearing about their university and how their parents from Belarus would need to apply for a visa simply to attend their university graduation and growing up with ration cards, snickers and chupa-chops lollies being smuggled into their country in time to be a Christmas present.

The films they made were "Experimental". This was my first time being exposed to such a style of film so when I was placed to work on mini workshop projects with them I was delighted, as I knew I would get something different and learn something new from them that I could then bring back home with me.

The theme of the workshop projects we made were directly linked to the Environment, trying to explore new ways not only of thinking about the environment but what we should do to address certain issues using our film making skills.

Milène Fegan

Our journey to what would be a great experience started on the 15th of July 2009. This was made possible by an organisation called Young European Film Forum for Cultural Diversity (YEFF).
A small group of four joined 36 others, all from different European countries, in Gothenburg Sweden for two weeks.
The group had one thing in common, filming. We were split into seven groups made up of 4-5 people from the different countries.
This was a challenge as there was a language barrier, most had a fair understanding of English whether it be speaking, listening or reading.
It was a good experience in that in my group I had to speak slow and clearly or we could write our ideas down for each other to understand.
Another challenge was making a film without editing. We would make short films and present them to each other talking about our idea behind them and getting feedback.
There was another group of 40 who met up in Umeå to make short films of their given topic, xenophobia, and we looked at what they had made.
On the last two days of the project we were able to show films that we had made in our own countries. This was interesting as we got to hear and see the different styles of how films are made in each country, for example what equipment was used and how much it cost.
I really enjoyed it and I am thankful to have had this experience and would love the opportunity to do it again.
Michelle Cosheril

When I was given the chance to go to Sweden courtesy of YEFF(Young European Film Forum) I had no hesitation whatsoever, I knew it would be a great opportunity.

However I could never have predicted the amazing experience which followed.

On arriving at the train station,just outside of Gothenburg, Sweden we were greeted by a very friendly 'tour' guide. He led us through the woods, suitcases and all, to the disused boarding school which was to be our home for the next ten days.

Within minutes of arriving there I’d spoken to people from Belgium, Portugal, Italy not to mention Sweden. There were around forty of us in total.

From workshops to making films we did it all. I had my first acting debut during an assignment with three other young European film makers. We were asked to produce a film on consumerism in which I played a girl who turns into a tree, we all agreed this was a unique take on the topic!

In fact there were many unique ideas and techniques on film making, which people shared together openly and frequently throughout the fortnight. We also discussed various films from many parts of Europe, which were shown on a daily basis. These discussions although sometimes light hearted were definitely a great way of learning about each other's views on life and diverse cultures for the films impacted differently on each of us.

We had the pleasure of watching the films of those we had bonded with in Sweden when we arrived in Gothenburg itself for the four day film festival at the end of our journey.

We were joined in Gothenburg by more participants on the YEFF programme who had been staying in another part of Sweden. We all quickly got to know each other. At times it felt like a meeting of the minds, at other times a cultural exchange but most of all it was a lot fun.

I have taken away a lot of knowledge about film making, cultural differences and similarities. I have also taken with me more than forty new friends.

Aisling McGeown

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