Ask Your Grandparents 1

Even though the dictatorship in Albania has been one of the harshest of Southeastern Europe, still many young people know little of their country's communist past. This happens for various reasons. Youth's indifference to that period has been helped to some extent by the generation who personally experienced the difficult communism, but intentionally or not chose to leave that period in silence and hide it from the younger generation.

For this reason, the Institute for Democracy, Media & Culture, through a competition titled "Ask Your Grandparents" wants to give the Albanian young people the chance to talk through creative tools, to share their stories and family experiences, but also to confront the different generations. It would help them acknowledge the distinct aspects of life during dictatorship and convey a certain message for the Albanian society.

"Ask Your Grandparents" is of course a symbol, a system of reference for the generations who lived during the communist regime in Albania. Stories of the older relatives, teachers, neighbors who have survived and worked in that time can serve to creatively reflect on the past. The competition aims to face up at least two generations and give the chance to Albanian young people to deal with a period they could not live but was emblematic to their country's development.

Although it is up to the historians, not the grandparents, to write the history of a country, conversing with grandparents is seen as an exchange with firsthand sources, witnesses of the time, to know past events from a closer inspection. "Ask Your Grandparents" aims at raising awareness of the Albanian society on the importance of knowing the yesterday, because there is no future without it.

This competition will be the second national competition organized by IDMC, and supported by the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth, Ministry of Education and Sports, the German Embassy in Tirana and Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Last year's creative competition for young people entitled "Born in the 90s: Explore the Past, Create the Future" on 22 October 2015 successfully awarded ten winners in 3 categories: essay and literature, multimedia and figurative arts.

This year's competition focus is MULTIMEDIA and it is open for all young Albanians. In today's digital era, the Internet is the place where the young, the digital generation, spend most of their time. IDMC wants to motivate them to be creative while sharing the experiences of their grandparents through Digital Storytelling. This is done to give value and a message to the time spent on the Internet, because telling a story, an event or a life experience through technology combines the art of storytelling with a variety of tools the multimedia has to offer, such as text, images, graphics, audio, video, music etc. The beauty of digital storytelling is that the elements, when used separately, may speak little or only to a certain audience. But once integrated, the message they transmit will be grasped by a larger audience.

Competitors will be free to choose the topics they want to work on and the point of view from which they want to reflect about the past. The following list provides a general idea of the topics that can be covered:

• Personal stories, interviews with witnesses about important events
• Employment, working conditions in the village, city etc.
• Economic aspects, domestic and foreign products etc.
• Objects of worship, religion practicing during dictatorship etc.
• Arts, literature and music
• Education
• Everyday life during dictatorship
• Sports, games
• Love stories
• Etc.
  

The competition will be announced in a special ceremony in the presence of the organizers and partners, representatives of various organizations promoting remembrance and young people, journalists from various media, and students.

During the announcement ceremony we will distribute leaflets with information about the competition, the participation criteria etc. Leaflets will also be shared in online networks and in high schools or higher education institutions countrywide.

Terms of Participation

The competition is open to all young Albanians living locally and abroad, in two age groups:

• High schoolers (aged 15‒18)
• Students, young people (aged over 18)
• Entries may be submitted in Albanian or English language.
• Each participant may submit only one entry.
• Each entry must be clearly linked to the theme of the competition.
• Only original work not presented in similar activities can be accepted.
• Entries (audio, video etc.) cannot exceed 4 minutes in length.
• Entries which are violent, hateful, sexist, racist, or in any other way offensive, will be disqualified.
• There is no participation fee.
  

Winners of last year's competition "Born in the 90s" are not allowed to participate in this competition.

Copyright and Reproduction Rights

• Please get permission to publish or broadcast from every person who appears in the video, film or picture.
• Entries submitted to the competition must be original work.
• Plagiarism will result in exclusion from the competition.
• Copyright of each entry remains with the author, but the author of the winning entry grants the organizer unlimited rights to reproduce their work for exhibitions or further publications.
• Winners of the competition will grant the organizer exclusive rights to translate, publish, exhibit and broadcast the winning entries for an undetermined amount of time. The winners agree as per the above terms that they will not take an honorarium, besides the prize.
  

Jury and Evaluation

The competition will announce 7 winners (3 prizes for each age group and 1 price of the public).

All entries will be evaluated by an independent jury composed of public figures and experts, based on the following criteria:

• Innovation in presenting the topic
• Understandability
• Creativity and originality
• Ability to attract the audience
• Clear and powerful message
• Authentic style
• Ability to deliver the project using innovative forms (social media etc.) and simple tools (smartphones, amateur camcorders etc.) in less than 4 minutes
  

Winners will be announced in October 2016 and invited to Tirana to collect the prize in the presence of renowned personalities in the fields of media, civil society, politics and culture.

Submission of Entries

Participants who decide to take part in this competition should email to office@idmc.al the following documents with the subject (AskYourGrandparents _Name_Surname).

• A short CV of the author.
• A copy of the signed application form where the applicants agree with the terms of participation and propose the title of the entry (1 sentence) and a short abstract (max. 1,200 characters, including spaces) introducing their idea about the production and how they think of developing it.
• Deadline for submissions is 18 September 2016.
• Entries must be delivered to the IDMC office in two (2) CDs/DVDs at the right capacities.
• No responsibility is taken for lost entries.
  

Address:

IDMC – Institute for Democracy, Media & Culture

Bardhok Biba St., Trema Bldg.
Entrance A, 11th Floor
Tirana, Albania

Participants will receive a confirmation by e-mail. For more information, please consult our website www.idmc.al or follow us on Facebook.

Competition Organizer

Contact:
Matilda Karçanaj | E-mail

Partners

Contact:
Ina Avllaj, Ina Hajno

Contact:
Kozeta Rrokomanaj, Marjana Lako

Sponsor