Euromed filmmakers collaborate on ‘Life of the Others’ project

‘The Life of the Others’ project kicked off in Valletta on the 8th March with a training workshop organised by aditus foundation, StoryDoc and Kinemastik Malta.

The project is a cultural exchange across the Euromed region and will showcase new work from local documentarians, StoryDoc from Greece, the Association House of Culture and Art (AMCA) from Morocco, the Young Palestinian Filmmakers Society (Palestine) and the Institution of Artists from Algeria.

The participants include a Maltese woman married to a Muslim man, a Somali refugee, French expats and a Spanish volunteer.

“These are, fittingly, some faces of the diversity in contemporary Malta, serving as a reminder that this has always been an island of ‘others’ becoming one,” a statement issued by the organisers read.

Seven local documentary filmmakers attended the workshop and presented their ‘original and exciting ideas’, which aim to document the lives of people in different ethnic and social groups in Malta. These include portraits of the contrasting lives of Scandinavian and African migrants, Maltese returnees from years abroad trying to find their place again, life and work for Muslim immigrants, young refugees socialising in youth clubs, a transgender person and the difficulties that gay couples and activists encounter here.

Kostas Spiropoulos from StoryDoc and Slavko Vukanovic from Kinemastik moderated the workshop and offered their professional guidance on filming methods and the potential subjects. The participants gave their feedback, contributing to the thematic and technical development of their colleagues’ ideas. The workshop ended with a screening of finished short documentaries in a similar vein, followed by a short discussion on exploring social themes in film and the efficacy of certain techniques in doing so.

The following day, a few of the participants met Kostas and Slavko to delve further into the ‘exciting possibilities’ the workshop had uncovered and over the course of the next two weeks - after further training on film techniques and sound recording - the participants will start shooting their footage.

The documentaries are to be available for public screenings in the five participating countries in June.

In the statement, the organisers extended their gratitude to ‘Aġenzija Żagħżagħ’, which provided its premises for the day, as well as the screening equipment.