PRIX JEUNESSE Suitcase workshop in Ukraine
Producers of WADADA News for Kids Ukraine and local media producers participated at this special event which was organized by NGO Aidami (Mariupol), Free Press Unlimited, Netherlands and UNICEF Ukraine. The Suitcase Workshop in Dnipro was held by Chris Schuepp who is also Editor-in-chief of WADADA News for Kids Ukraine.
Earlier this year, in February 2017, producers from seven cities in eastern Ukraine gathered in Dnipro to kick-off a cooperation of youth TV makers that is unique in Ukraine.
While there are lots of small youth media outlets all over the country, nobody had yet made an effort to unite them and work together on a regional TV programme for kids. With support from UNICEF Ukraine and Free Press Unlimited, WADADA News for Kids Ukraine was born. After the initial training led by Jan Willem Bult (WADADA News for Kids) and Chris Schuepp (at that time working as consultant for UNICEF Ukraine), the producers started collaborating and from April 2017 on they have produced a new episode of WADADA News for Kids Ukraine every second week.
To wrap up a successful year and to get some additional training on how to do even better films for their programme, the WADADA News for Kids Ukraine producers again met in Dnipro, Ukraine, on 19/20 December 2017 for a Prix Jeunesse Suitcase workshop. The categories chosen for the training were all from the non-fiction session since this is much closer to the WADADA reporting than fictional stories. There were only two films from the “up to 6” category, since the main target group of WADADA News for Kids Ukraine is kids aged 8-14.
The focus therefore was on the categories no-fiction “7-10 years” and “11-15 years”. The suitcase packed by Prix Jeunesse – or rather the USB stick supplied by Prix Jeunesse (times are changing…) – held a very interesting mix of films from different parts of the world: Bangladesh, Taiwan, Mongolia, Philippines, Colombia, but also many from Europe due to the geographical and cultural proximity to Ukraine and the high quality of the productions.
The films gave the participants of the workshop many news ideas how to create better stories, how to focus on developing more comprehensive scripts and how to create better images for WADADA News for Kids Ukraine. The most interesting discussions circled around the tackling of controversial problems. The Dutch film “How Ky turned into Niels” about to transgender kids and their struggles to be accepted by their peers as well as the Dutch film “My father” about a girl and her father who suffers from Alzheimer’s were the most discussed films of the workshop.
At the end of the two-day training, the Ukrainian producers cast their votes and the Top 3 of the two categories were:
Category: non-fiction (7-10 years)
- 1st: New (Witfilm, Netherlands)
- 2nd: I got it! Jumper Boys (UBE Media Inc., Philippines)
- 3rd: My father (NLFilm &TV, Netherlands)
Category: non-fiction (11-15 years)
- 1st: Extreme moments (Sveriges Television (SVT), Sweden)
- 2nd: How Ky turned into Niels (IKONdocs, Netherlands)
- 3rd: Bente’s voice (BlazHoffski Productions BV, Netherlands)
The PRIX JEUNESSE Suitcase workshop in Dnipro was held by Chris Schuepp who is also Editor-in-chief of WADADA News for Kids Ukraine.
Captions: 1) The WADADA News for Kids Ukraine team at the Prix Jeunesse Suitcase workshop in Dnipro, 20 December 2017