SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
LINES OF ACTION


Many people agree that a single film can raise awareness and open a window into new realities. We agree with this statement too, but we also think there are other ways in which audiovisual works can contribute to society, ways which, through direct action could reach social layers where conventional films have no visibility or have little impact.

Through all these years, we have found different ways to apply the art of audiovisual work towards Social Responsibility. Next we look at all the experiences we've had so far, hoping there will be many more.

With this, we not only aim to make a strong statement in the belief that every entity, regardless of their sphere of activities, should dedicate efforts and resources to promote and/or take actions within the Social Responsibility field, but also we would like to share our experiences to be able to inspire other audiovisual entities to perform similar activities.

Similarly, if after reading them you come up a new initiative, you would like to give us your opinion, or even collaborate with us in any of them, please don't hesitate to contact us on rsa@aved.es.




SOCIAL ACTION TRAININGñ EMPOWERING

At AVED Productions we strongly believe on the need for free cultural expression for everybody, what we refer to as 'Audiovisual democratisation'. In practice, it means increasingly more people have access to the audiovisual medium, thanks to the lowering prices of the required technology, although technical education is still hard to access due to:

- Specialised schools have very high fees and demand strict discipline, which makes it incompatible with any other simultaneous activity (other studies, a job, etc...).

- The great range of varying concepts that comprise the subject make it very difficult - and very slow - to study independently through the internet or specialised libraries, especially when you don't know exactly what you are looking for.

- The need of a group of people, relatively large, with a similar interest in audiovisual work. Usually, a single person cannot put in practice what has been learned or face real on-the-job situations.


Knowing of all these difficulties, we centre our efforts in facilitating technical education to everyone with an interest, either as a hobby, as a lifetime experience or with a clear aim to work in the industry.

Adding to the undeniable value of artistic expression is the fact that audiovisual work is a powerful tool for the transmission of knowledge and vindication. AVED Productions believes that going the extra mile and making the effort to empower young people is a clear and strong contribution to society.

In this sense, it should be the responsibility of every institution to allow room in their agenda to generate areas and tools for the youth, where they have the opportunity to make themselves, mature, develop their ability of self-expression and understanding the world around them, while they are supported in the making of their own projects.

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Throughout the year, we have a number of different free training initiatives, coordinated by our Training Department, made up of young adults. We list them below:

- Continuous training on cinematographic theory and practice:

· For AVED members and external collaborators.

· Internship schemes with international programmes: Leonardo Da Vinci (Italia) o LLP/ERASMUS (Lithuania). Also, educational programs with a number of autonomous regions in Spain.

· The opportunity to take part, under supervision, in professional projects as well as other projects for training purposes.

· Attend press conferences and passes to international film festivals. Writing and editing analytical texts.

· Cineforum, aimed to get a better understanding on the art of filmmaking.

· A department within AVED made up solely of new and inexperienced members, with the same structure as AVED Productions in its early beginnings. Members in this department have absolute freedom to produce whichever project they choose counting with all of AVED's available infrastructures and being responsible for their own tasks.

- Collaboration in educational projects for audiovisual training.

· I.e.: Educational project KDM - Barcelona 2011 - 2013


Web series produced by teenagers (16 to 19 year-old). An 18-month project: (6 months for preparations, 6 months of classes, divided in different workshops teaching the different aspects of cinematographic art - includes a number of cineforum -, 6 month filming). This project was promoted together with the Ajuntament de Barcelona. Districte de Sant Andreu, "Colectivo Piloto", "Centro Garcilaso” y "Fabra i Coats. Fábrica de Creación". Aved provides all lighting material for the project and one of the cameras, as well as two teachers who lead the camera and direction of photography training workshops.

- Specific workshops:

· Introductory film workshops for schools for youngsters from 10 years-old: 'The origins of cinema', 'Special effects in film', etc...

· Specialised workshops for groups OF 5 to 15 people with an interest in a particular aspect or technique: 'camera handling', 'introduction to lighting', 'video editing', etc...




VINDICATIVE SOCIAL ACTION: MANAGING ISSUES AND NEEDS

In AVED Productions, we intend to use our experience, knowledge, infrastructure and resources to contribute to a better world, from a cultural and a social perspective.

In this aspect, we are always open to actively collaborate with NGO's, developing projects or any institution that supports these principles, so we can contribute to their cause in an audiovisual format, either by giving visibility to their activities and promote their message or facilitating the possibility of achieving funding for their project:…

We summarise below the different ways in which we have used our audiovisual capabilities towards this end.

- 'On the ground' documentary production,” discussing specific of social issues in different cultures, in collaboration with local teams in Morocco, Peru and Israel.

Three examples:

· “Proyecto Cuentacartas”; It is about an epistolary exchange between Barcelona and Tangier students.

· “Abancay se escribe planeando”; It is about the work performed by CEAT in the poorest village in Peru.

· “Ein Bustan: educando para la paz”; It is about a Israeli school the teaches equally Hebrew and Muslim students.


- Social cineforum for specific groups: discussion of social and humanitarian issues through films touching on social values.

For example, a cineforum about modern history and human and social values directed to the homeless that lived in the abandoned factories of the Maresme neighborhood.


- Educational workshops to motivate young people to learn social values and ecologic sustainability.

For example, a film workshop for young immigrants of first or second generation. First they learn the process to make an audiovisual work and then the produce a short film on a subject of their choice and representing a real issue of their daily life (the chosen subject was racism prejudices).


- Cognitive behavioral therapy through audiovisual work for handicapped people.

We worked with a psychologist to study the viability of developing a therapeutic project designed for a group of mentally impaired people. Faced with the challenge of making a short film, the initiative aimed to develop their group therapy, responsibility capabilities, teamwork and decision-making.


- Approach to the audience of artistic expression and the values of the young as novel authors. In many cases these young authors belonged to a working class were economic difficulties hindered their experimentation with the audiovisual from a professional approach.

- Cultural exchange and raising awareness.

 · We welcome people from all nationalities to work together in some of the social projects we produce.

· We send our members, collaborators and internship trainees to take part on audiovisual projects produced in other countries.

· We spare no effort to increase social awareness in the young people that come to work with us.

· In general, everybody that comes through AVED Productions has the opportunity to take part in a project aimed towards Social Audiovisual Responsibility.


- Offering our services as collaboration to all entities whose final aim is to promote culture, education and social values.


For more information on our collaborations, please visit our collaborations tab.