08/08/2022
A festival like "DokuFest" could never leave our small audience out of attention. Professionals, artists, engineers and why not filmmakers of the future grow in it. Through the "DokuKids" program dedicated to children, it is intended to engage them in issues that affect them as well as adults.
"DokuKids" is the space dedicated to children at the festival. It can be considered one of the most important spaces of the festival as it produces new artists and audiences. Throughout these days, a multitude of activities are being held, starting with films, continuing with workshops. It is about 40 films that are being shown to our young audience and 6 workshops through which children will develop creativity in various fields related to art, technology and filmmaking. Through "Dokukids" we try to introduce the new generation to the filmmaking process with the hope that one day when they grow up, we will have the films of these children participating in DokuFest", says Prek Memaj, assistant curator of "DokuKids".
While Rita Bekqeli, curator of the "DokuKids" film program, told more about the themes of these film products that are offered to children.
"The films that are served to children in the DokuKids program have the primary purpose of educating and raising awareness while having fun. A good part of them have as themes environmental protection, bullying, animal protection and survival in SPECIFIC situations."
This Monday, around 10 films for children from different cities have been shown in the Innovation Park area since the morning. As the day continued with the workshops, one of them was about coloring, while the second one was about the use of technology in art.
"Using Technology in the Arts" was taught by Jeremy Laurichesse, film instructor and filmmaker, who spoke at length about this class.
"Together with a team I work with in 2015 we created an artistic collective that focuses on education through images. We conduct classes related to this topic mainly for children, through which we try to educate through the tours that we conduct every year in order to learn cinema in a different way.
Today we have an activity with children to whom we are teaching the art of animation and stopmotion. It's a practice that makes them work independently, and feel like they're making the film themselves."
The activities of "DokuKids" are making the city hum every day with the pleasant voices and movements of the redeemed of those who are the most sensitive part of any society.
By Ana Haxhimali
Photo Credits: Kushtrim Haxha