Jana International Film Festival for Children & Youth is back… but this year the circumstances, the films and the organization are different. This year’s festival is not only different, but also better…
Before we start talking about our festival, we want to prove the importance of such festivals in general. Each day, understanding the role of youth and children, as the major actors in drawing the face of the future, is increasing. These young people will be the ones steering the ship of society to the shores of advancement. Therefore, everyone and especially influential people with an interest in culture should pay more attention to the youth’s circumstances and opinions, and also try to build a base from which the young can start launching prospects for the future.
For us our festival is one of the most important events that address the goals mentioned above. Most of the movies screened in the festival are made by children and youth or revolve around their issues. What they face, live, and feel. We are a group of young people involved in organizing major aspects of the festival. We worked effectively, and expressed ourselves sincerely, in this festival. This is one of the factors that distinguished this festival from previous ones. We are grateful to those who put in a great deal of effort, those who supervised and supported us: foremost Hisham Kayed, the festival coordinator. Dareen Shamseddine, played the role of an executive supervisor, as she organized and ran our sessions and meetings. In addition, she planned the work schedules and divided us into committees – like the film Selection Committee and the Writers Committee. The members of the Writers Committee wrote the articles of the newsletter. Dareen assigned the roles only after taking into consideration our opinions and suggestions. We were really like an active beehive full of excitement and love for the work and for self expression.
The festival was originally planned for November 2006, but the aggressions during the July War, postponed it and added yet another reason for it to be unique. The committees stopped getting together and the meeting rooms were empty but for our documents, that were waiting for us! Then Hisham called us again, and we all came back to continue our work, with enthusiasm in our hearts and yearning in our eyes and hands, to watch the films again, and continue writing and expressing ourselves. Activity was back in the “hive”, the smiles came back to our lips, after it was wiped away due to grief caused by the war. It was as if we were taking revenge for the children and young people who became martyrs in the war. We defied war with peace, gun power with pen power, destruction with organization, hostility against youth with films for and by youth. The bottom line is that the Jana International Film Festival for Children and Youth 2007 is the outcome of a great commitment and devotion, from all who took part in organizing it. It could be the corner stone of the future we want to build, (we young people), according to how we look at life and the future…
Areej Khaddaj
18 years
