StrangerFestival

ECF’s StrangerFestival and its annual award event in Amsterdam was a two year project over 2008 and 2009. It was a celebration of young people’s video-making that also involved: a training academy, video workshops throughout Europe and a travelling exhibition to promote all the resulting videos.

 StrangerFestival was one of the selected flagship projects for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 (EYID). The project launched ECF into committing a space and activities to facilitate, support and inspire young people. The results were remarkable, with thousands of videos uploaded to the website.

© Hulya Kilicaslan Trainers and trainees at the Stranger Festival Award ceremony, Amsterdam

Strangerfestival.com along with strong partners working across Europe mobilized and gathered these diverse stories. By placing individual visions in a larger transnational context, StrangerFestival encouraged a sense of belonging among young people from very different cultural backgrounds across greater Europe. Everywhere, young people are demonstrating their mastery of new media and the StrangerFestival allowed many to lead the debate themselves. This project paved the way for the development of the ECF’s current Youth and Media programme.

The first StrangerFestival took place in Amsterdam on 3-5 July 2008, followed by the second edition on 14-17 October 2009. Both had onsite professionals advising and training the participants, as well as taking part in expert discussions on the future of creativity in our digital society. This is the Expert Meeting video, that took place on the 16th October 2009.

ECF also commissioned the renowned think tank DEMOS to carry out research linked to the contemporary video culture of young people. Funded by Helsingin Sanomat Foundation, the resulting publication, Video Republic was released in 2008 and gives a revelatory insight into what is going on in the virtual world and how this relates to the worlds of culture, media and politics. You can either download it here or order a hardcopy directly via DEMOS.

In 2009, the StrangerExhibition toured Italy and was showcased at MUSAE (Urban Museum of Experimental and Emerging Arts). In the end, this travelling video collection was shown in over 50 cities, with over 900 artists presenting their work.

Our main corporate funder for the StrangerFestival award event was Boeing.