2025

EthnoKino continues with it's second year of mentoring and fellowship programme in the form of a lab, for short and feature films that are visionary in the widest sense of the word and are concerned with identifying and addressing contemporary global issues by supporting and building movements and alliances. The lab aims to assist emerging filmmakers and storytellers as Mov(i)ement fellows from around the world to ideate, develop and complete a draft of their original film screenplay and to design their impact with the guidance of experienced mentors.

Dedicated to visionaries and pioneering storytellers across the globe, Mov(i)ement fellows will join our international action community of practice, working towards systemic change through the power of authentic and meaningful storytelling. Our catalytic home cinema of the commons and commoning film practices intends to co-create a nourishing influential movement for societal cohesion and to enact integral transformation for planetary impact.

The fellowship is offered by EthnoKino and the mentorship programme is designed in collaboration with Animating the Commons, an applied research Initiative situated at the University of Bern’s Critical Sustainability Unit led by visual anthropologist and award winning documentary filmmaker Dr.Eda Elif Tibet. The aim of the mentorship is to assist emerging filmmakers from around the world to ideate, develop and complete a draft of their original film screenplay with accompanying impact campaigns and distribution plans.

The programme is open to storytellers from all over the world and provides a transformative experience for emerging filmmakers and visual anthropologists to explore their creativity and individual voice in an inspiring, intensive program that balances one-on-one mentorship sessions and independent work with moderated group discussions and presentations.

If you have a transformative story to tell and your efforts are around advocating for a more just and regenerative planet earth, come attend the DOC Impact Lab programme guided by experienced mentors, namely visual anthropologists and independent documentary filmmakers alongside to a trailblazing list of multimodal mentors who all form Our Community.

What to Expect:

Join a group of people from around the world in a unique social project in the Swiss Alps. Kino in der Reitschule which is where our film screenings take place is a grassroots community center that welcomes people from all walks of life independent of their origin, ethnicity/nationality or religion. Tailored to individual needs, the total duration of the fellowship will be for six months after the first kick of meeting taking place during the EthnoKino film festival in Bern (3-6 Oct). The training will include the viewing of the films selected for showcase during the festival are open to anyone interested who self-defines as a storyteller. Activists, community workers and members of governmental entities and non-profit organizations can use the mentorship as workforce training or for professional development.

With continuous in person meetings happening at the EthnoKino Film Festivals around the world (Berlin, Mexico City, Istanbul, Marrakech), our out of the box spaces like the Vision Talks, Masters in Bern and online Keynotes will also be among the inspiring and engaging components of the training programme.Participants will be offered a space to enhance their experience throughout a 5 days residency in person, beside a tailored online mentorship program that will help them to improve their skills in dramatic writing; premise, theme, structure, character and story as well as in distribution and accessing the media industry.

Out of the box experiential learning: During the online mentoring sessions and in person meetings , we will use a broad range of experiential methods and pedagogical means to transcend traditional didactics.

Tailor made to Individuals: Our teaching and learning activities center around your personal and professional development interests, previous experience and project ideas.

The places to be: The Reitschule provides an energizing environment for developing life-long relationships and new ideas.

Community & partnership engagement: We will frequently interact with people in place.

Our aim is radical inclusion and wide impact: Costs are generally kept as low as possible. We work on a sliding scale as we adopt a solidarity based circular economy, we manage a small fund for participants from the Global South.

The lab is structured in:

Kick off Meeting at the 4'th EthnoKino Film Festival “Harvest" 2024
Online Sessions – twice a month (6 months program) 2025
5 Days in-residency programme - Venue TBA (in-person) 2025
EthnoKino Film Festivals throughout the year (in-person) 2024-2025
Pitching session or film screening to audience and industrial professionals during the forthcoming 5'th EthnoKino film festival

Submission Requirements for the mentorship programme:

Narrative, feature documentary, animation and experimental short films are eligible. Projects can be in any language but shall aim to have English subtitles. Availability needed between January to June 2025.

*2 mins video explaining your motivation, intention and project idea. Online links to your former work, CV and portfolio to ethnokino.unibern@gmail.com .

Deadlines:

Open call for the Mov(i)ement Fellowship at the Doc Impact Lab, first round till 24 Sept & second round till 24 Dec 2024.