Blind Ditch presents VANLAND
An extraordinary mobile film exhibition made by young people from County Kildare and rural Teignbridge, Devon, UK.
It may look like something you tow to your favourite seaside location, but Vanland’s touring caravan is far from ordinary on the inside. In fact the two-berth caravan has been transformed into a spectacular video exhibition space containing eight different viewing stations, screening digital shorts in different combinations - projected onto windows, hidden in overhead lockers, secreted in the shower room...
Watch out for the un-missable VANLAND caravan in County Kildare as it tours the county showing digital films made by young people from the Visionswitch and Kildare Youth TV trans-national media project. All the films displayed in the caravan have been devised and produced by the young people involved - mini-documentaries, 5 minute thrillers and psychological dramas all made using the countryside of Co.Kildare and Devon as a film set!
The VANLAND caravan will be in the Old Town Hall Car Park, Newbridge on Weds 8th Feb, Thurs 9th Feb Clane venue to be confirmed 7.30pm, Athy Dominican Hall Friday 10th 1.30pm onwards and outside the library in Ballitore on Sat 11th Feb 11am onwards. For more information contact Paula Crutchlow 0044 7881 862714 or Bertha Mulvey KELT 00353 458 61973
The VISION SWITCH workshops are part of a Transnational Cooperation initiative between Devon and Co. Kildare funded by the European Leader+ programme. Since March last year Blind Ditch (UK) and the Centre for Performing Arts (Celbridge) have been running video making workshops and events with groups of young people from across the two counties. The young people involved in the project have used video making processes as a lens to compare their experiences of rural life in these different counties – exchanging video messages about their views of each others counties, made documentaries, short fictional films and music videos related to their lives.
In October 2005 a group of young people from Newbridge visited Devon to make a music video on Dartmoor. On Saturday 11th February young people from Devon will be meeting their counterparts in Ballitore for the first time when they will be taking part in film making workshops together and exchanging views on rural life!
Paula Crutchlow from Blind Ditch said:
“The VISION SWITCH project is a fantastic opportunity for both sets of young people to compare the way they live and the counties they live in whilst learning new media and communication skills. The VANLAND programme has been running very successfully in Teignbridge for two years now and everyone has had a great time building on the skills and experiences we can offer young people in the district through this exciting programme.”Felek Werpachowski aged 15 from Devon said:
“It was a very enjoyable experience. I hope to do it again and the skills I have learned will be very useful for me for the future.”Jeremy Parker aged 16 from Devon said: “The workshops are great as they are helping people do things that they might not be able to do by inviting them to make something they can be proud of at the end’.
Stephen Corcoran aged 17 from Ballitore said: “They are lovely people and very talented and I would love to work with them again sometime”.
George Giles, Chairman of TRRP said:
"The successful development of projects that bring rural areas together from different countries is one of the challenges of the EU LEADER+ programme. This is a great opportunity for professionals from Teignbridge and County Kildare to work with young people from both countries to develop their skills and to perhaps discover that many of the challenges and frustrations faced by young people living in rural communities are often very similar."Chris Byrne, Chairman of KELT
“This is a very exciting project involving young people from Ireland and the UK. We are very happy to be able to support this initiative with Leader Plus funding and the young people who participated gained new life experiences and had fun being involved”.