Directed By You(th)

ended

Directed By You(th) addresses issues in civic engagement, apathy, disenfranchisement and low democratic trust among youth in Europe. The aim is to promote and achieve the aims of the European Youth Strategy: to engage, empower and connect youth. This will be done by using a still not widely used innovative method of participatory documentary making, as well as graphic design. Youth workers will deliver workshops at the local level for 25 youth per country, helping them to develop their individual or small-group video and campaign on an issue that directly affects them and/or their community. The youth's videos and accompanying graphical campaign will be uploaded to a web platform in the form of a virtual exhibition. Finally, film festivals will be held. Local film festivals will celebrate the youth's work and to promote their campaigns, and youth will be assisted in presenting their issues to important local stakeholders and local government. An international film festival will promote the project methods and results, and the philosophy of democratic civic participation, with one youth representative from each country chosen to attend and present their documentaries, helping to organise and promote the event. Focussing on issues directly related to the experiences of the youth will maximise their engagement in the civic issues they choose to base their work on. The ideas and style of the videos will be decided by the youth themselves, while the youth workers will facilitate the processes of brainstorming, training, developing and editing the videos. This bottom-up process will empower the youth and motivate them to engage with civic society. Finally, youth will learn valuable skills in video making and graphic design, important in the rapidly digitalising world.