FORUM 16 is always working to equip young Macedonians with the tools to express their vision for a better society. Toward this end, we organized Macedonia’s first Kino Kabaret event in Bitola, the birthplace of the Balkan film industry. With this event we launched a new and ongoing program to train young activists in civics, media advocacy, and the technical aspects of creating “short films in a short period of time” – the hallmark of the international Kino movement.
Оbjectives of the KinoBit program are to:
- Educate young Macedonians regarding human rights, good governance, and advocacy for social change;
- To capacitate Macedonian citizens to advocate for positive social change through the production of short films and videos;
- To educate Macedonian citizens about human rights and good government through presentation of original video productions in an ongoing series of workshops, screenings, entries in film festivals, and distribution through online and offline channels.
For Kino Kabaret event, we bring creative young activists from across Macedonia to Bitola, to receive expert instruction in human rights, good governance, advocacy, and the essentials of filmmaking. This will be followed by technical support for shooting and editing, and a special screening event to showcase the results for film professionals and the larger community. In the following period, FORUM 16 will organize a Kino Karavan tour, in which our young filmmakers will screen their work for public audiences throughout Macedonia.
In May 2017, FORUM 16 approached for the firsttime to fund this project through the successful crowdfunding campaign at Generosity.com. The first activity of the KinoBit kino cell was held in October 2018 with the organization of the first Kino Kabaret event in Bitola, in which about 20 participants gathered to create short films in a short time with a focus on topics to promote human rights.