Borders – Festival / workshop /network meeting, hosted by Cinémas du Palais, Créteil, Paris. 18th – 22ND NOVEMBER 2008. Liz Milner and Sam Woodcock from eShed

Borders is an international network of film-related organisations who firmly believe that film has the power to change the world around us by using stories to create new ways of living. Borders has three main aims:

  • To put humanity at the heart of its activities

  • To enable people in particular locations [often where there has been conflict] to participate in projects that can re-imagine the world they live in

  • To imagine, through making participative stories (drama/documentary), a world in which we wish to live in the future


Créteil was not the crumbling old suburb of Paris I’d expected but a vast, 1970s vision of the future with its own university, ‘expressways’, ungainly public art, monumental civic buildings, utopian landscaping and unique ‘architecture végétale’ – bizarre blocks flats known as Les Choux (the cabbages), designed by architect Gérard Grandval in the mid 1970s and featured in ‘Ma Rue’, the Cinémas du Palais’ ED entry on day 13. The scale and feel of the place made a strong impact and provided a significant setting for our visit.

This event was a genuine piece of intercultural dialogue between film-related organisations from across Europe, represented largely by young people (18 – 25) involved in the Borders project, from Poland, Germany, Slovenia, Bosnia, Sweden, Spain, Northern Ireland, and France – Frédéric Henry from the Cinémas du Palais and the local jeunesse from Créteil were our hosts.

The event was the first time the group had all come together since filming in Bosnia in the summer, where they made a documentary, ‘Fragments of Bosnia’ – interviews with Bosnian people about how the war altered, and still affects their lives now; and a drama, ‘Pola-pola’ (half and half) about a boy living in a village in Bosnia and his search for identity - he was the result of his mother’s rape by a Serbian soldier.

We attended screenings of these films in the Cinémas du Palais on our first evening, and at a nearby school the following evening where the Bosnian Ambassador to Paris gave an introduction, and on our final day visited a another school during class time to show the film to 15 year old students as part of a seminar to generate debate about the issues raised and to promote participation by the students in the Borders project.

There was a ‘round table - professional gathering’ of local government officers, representatives from other organisations working in similar territory, educators and teachers from the Val de Marne, and all the Borders participants where Sam and I gave a presentation about Watershed and Electric December which generated much interest and enthusiasm.

We also participated in group film-making workshop with some young people from a local lycée to create films in an hour around the theme of a cultural stereotype, all filmed in the local shopping precinct – an entertaining test of technical ability and communication.

Informally we discussed our cultural similarities and differences, areas of interest and shared enjoyment of media and film-making during journeys to and from the Cinémas du Palais, on a flying visit to Paris, on buses and metros to schools, in bars over coffee, beer, wine and slivovitch, and during two memorable meals in the nearby Cafe du Sports.

We had a really absorbing time and after spending three and half intense days with all participants, ‘the Spirit of Borders’ (often alluded to by our host Frédéric) had cast its spell, and I was left with a real admiration both for the project and the commitment from everyone concerned – the young people and the organisers.

Posted by Liz