PRIX JEUNESSE – Ecuador Suitcase Workshop
On 21, 22 and 23 August 2017, a first PRIX JEUNESSE Suitcase Workshop was held at the IPANC Cultural Center in Quito, Ecuador. About 40 local television production professionals took part in the event. The purpose of this meeting was to develop strategies to improve the quality of television productions for children.
By Monica Maruri
Host of the event was the Quito-based IPANC, an organization which wants to strengthen the natural and cultural heritage, cultural rights, inter-culturality and cultural management at the service of member countries. It provides technical assistance, services and quality products that allow to assess the immense wealth of the Ibero-American region. IPANC is one of the three specialized areas of the Andrés Bello Convention Organization, an international intergovernmental organization that promotes the strengthening of integration processes and the development of a common cultural space.
In May 2017, IPANC and the Humboldt Association Goethe Center Quito, had signed an agreement to cooperate in activities with the PRIX JEUNESSE Suitcase, in order to inspire children’s media producers in Ecuador with the selection of high quality productions for children and youth from all over the world.
During the three days of the show, attendees saw and analyzed the best programs of PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL 2016, grouped into three categories. Following the projections, panels were held, led by Mónica Maruri, Executive Director of IPANC and Jan-Willem Bult, producer, Dutch director and editor-in-chief of Wadada News for kids.
On the third day of the Ecuadorean Suitcase, Jan-Willem Bult guided the workshop “Strong Stories for Strong Children”, which resulted in 29 personal stories. The best stories will provide the incentive for scripts for the Ecuadorean productions of the project “The Day I Became Strong”, an international coproduction initiated by PRIX JEUNESSE and the IZI.