OPENCities Dublin was launched on 28 April by British Ambassador to Ireland, Julien King, in the presence of Lord Mayor of Dublin, Gerry Breen.

On the night we saw the transformation of the Creation Arcade 22-23 Duke Street into a gallery and hub space for a range of seminars, workshops, performances and gatherings, running from 28 – 13 May in addition to the ‘Sounds of the City’ competition/Soundtrack of the City Competition – closing date 11 May. 

OPENCities is a British Council project in partnership with Dublin City Council and cities around the world. The OPENCities project asks what constitutes an ‘open city’ and how a city can benefit from becoming more open to diverse populations. OPENCities Dublin is programmed and curated by FOMACS, the Forum on MIgration and Communications (for more on OPENCities Dublin click here

Since the OPENCities Dublin launch, 22-24 Duke Street is currently the location for lively debate and conversation about ‘Urbanism, Migration and City Form’; ‘Food and the Open City’; ‘Young and Living in the City’; ‘Civil Partnership, Immigration and the Open City’; ‘Writing the City’; ‘Manifesto for an Open City’, among other themes. These sessions are held alongside the exhibition ‘Faces’ – with work comprising eight outstanding European photographers, reflecting the openness of their own cities (Dublin, Vienna, Bilbao, Sofia, Vienna, Madrid, Cardiff and Belfast). The British Council commissioned, Veronica Vierin - currently a PhD student in the Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice, DIT – to photograph Dublin for this project.    

Visit the Creation Arcade on 22-23 Duke Street to see how the use of a pop up as an exhibition space concretises an ‘OPENCities’ theme – the creative, transitional use of slack city space.

Crossing Cultures: Dublin City Dialogues is a city-wide programme of events, screenings and workshops opening up Dublin’s public spaces for debate and reflection on challenges and opportunities arising from demographic change. 

Animation Screenings at Dublin City Libaries

Documentary and animation combine in Abbi’s Circle – an award winning 'documation' about migrant family life in Ireland. Developed in collaboration between FOMACS and its NGO partners, Abbi’s Circle draws from case studies in a series of three animated short films on the topic of immigration, with an emphasis on ‘family reunification’.

Made in conjunction with FOMACS and the Irish Refugee Council, Burden of Proof is a short animated film about the asylum process in Ireland and premiered in Dublin on 18 June 2010 as part of a European-wide series of events marking World Refugee Day.

As part Dublin City Council Social Inclusion Week, selected Dublin City Public Libraries will host school’s screenings of Abbi’s Circle and Burden of Proof.  The Irish Refugee Council’s school’s panel will give audiences the opportunity to deepend their engagement with the issues affecting refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland.

Locating these screenings in Dublin City Libraries acknowledges the importance of stimulating dialogue about immigration and cultural difference in local spaces used and shared by cross-sections of the community. For more information about Social Inclusion Week, please go to: (http://www.dublin.ie/dcdb/social-inclusion-week-2011.htm)

Venue & Date:

Wednesday 4th May in Coolock Library

Thursday 5th May in Walkinstown Library

Friday 6th May in Central Library, 10.30-11.30am

Admission free

Young and Living in the City

Designing Dublin assist young people in identifying factors inhibiting their engagement with the social and built environment of their localities. Participants will learn how to apply a design process approach to move from generating ideas to developing concepts with the potential to become projects that have real impact in shared city spaces.  

Designing Dublin is a learning initiative, supported by Dublin Creative Alliance and composed of volunteers and City Council staff, which applies design approaches and tools to enhance the everyday experiences of people who live and work in the city of Dublin. 

Venue: The Creation Arcade, Duke St., Dublin 2

Time & Date: 13 May, 12.30-2pm

Advance reservation required, places are limited to 20. Please RSVP to aileenfomacs@gmail.com

Poetry and Literary Reading

Join us for an evening of poetry and short stories with Marie Wallace, winner of the new poetry section of the Hennessy awards in 2005/06, Mervyn Ennis, and John Conroy, both of whose poems have been published in ‘Tallaght Soundings’.  We welcome people to participate on a ‘drop in’ basis in the aim of making this event inclusive to a range of writers, readers, and literary forms. 

Venue: The Creation Arcade

Time and date: 11 May, 6-8pm

Screening: Belonging (FOMACS/Immigrant Council of Ireland, 2010)

Belonging will screen to members of Swan Youth Service. Swan Youth Service promotes the positive involvement of young people in the St. Agatha’s, North Strand and North Wall area, encouraging young people to participate in their communities in positive ways.

Belonging is a FOMACS/ICI production which took place across two weekends, offering young people a platform to reflect upon their everyday lives, and discuss their thoughts about the future. Working with photography, video and music, media acted as a catalyst for collective discussion about group and individual identities, friendships, the notion of community and family, race and religion. The workshops allowed participants to respond to issues of 'belonging' and 'home' and to take part in a lively conversation about emergent Irish identities and what and who is counted as being 'Irish' from the perspective of young people growing up in Ireland today.

Venue: St. Agatha’s Hall, Dunne St           

Time & Date: TBC

Click here to view the video

DJ Double V

Italian-born photographer and DJ Veronica Vierin moved to Dublin in 2002 and is currently a practice-based PhD candidate in the Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice, DIT. In 2003 she joined Babalonia, a collective of international DJs based in Dublin and is co-founder of the newly formed Patchanka Styla, a musical project that brings artists/musicians from the South of Europe to Dublin audiences. She’s also collaborating with Groovalizacion DJs, and currently running a weekly live radio show with DJ iZem on Groovalizacion WebRadio. Double V plays a whole range of Mediterranean sounds from reggaedub, funk-arab-latin riddims to Balkanic and Italian urban beats. 


 
DJ iZem

Jérémie Moussaid Kerouanton is a globetrotter musician,  journalist and co-founder of the Groovalizacion online radio project. He is a disciple of musical crossbreeding, abolishing language barriers and reasserting the value of the musical heritage of urban and rural peripheral areas. Raised in multicultural France during the golden era of hip-hop culture, he broadened his influences along his many travels, including musical exchanges with his country of origin, Morocco, and trips to Latin America and the Middle East. After working as a radio producer in Paris in the early 2000s, he lived in Spain between 2005 and 2008 where he met DJ Cucurucho, and with whom he founded the collective Groovalizacion and the radio programme ‘Musicas Migratorias’. Back in Europe since 2009, he currently resides in Dublin where he launched the ‘Dublin Tropical’ nights.

'Crossing Cultures: Dublin City Dialogues' FOMACS/Office for Integration (OFI), Dublin City Council 

‘Crossing Cultures: Dublin City Dialogues’ dedicates its spring programme to facilitating public debate around creative and socially engaged media projects involving young people from diverse cultural backgrounds.  Building on a focus on youth in our ‘Moving Worlds: Cinemas of Migration’ film festival and participatory media pilot project Belonging, the current edition of ‘Crossing Cultures’ carves out a space to connect issues of access and social equality to participatory media forms in youth contexts both here and abroad.

In addition, we are pleased to announce the establishment of a youth advisory panel, ensuring FOMACS is strategically positioned to listen to the concerns and ambitions of young people.  Youth Worker, Hailuu Netsiyanwa, will steer this exploratory initiative, which will act as a crucial touchstone for forthcoming youth led projects.
 
For enquiries please contact 'Crossing Cultures' Curator, Aileen Blaney: aileenfomacs@gmail.com /(01) 402 7126.

March 15, Tuesday

Roundtable with ManiFesta: developing, producing and managing media projects with young people.

Image (c) ManiFesta

Media literacy: a luxury or necessity? How can youth media participation challenge barriers associated with social and educational advantage? How are young people adapting and using new media technologies? What forms of media literacy are being practiced by youth cultures that have migrated or are living in communities in which a wide range of cultures mix and cross-fertilise? How can media be used as a tool for young people to be the creators and producers of their own messages?
 
These are just some of the questions that this roundtable articulates to a selection of film and video projects developed by ManiFesta, before opening out into a broader conversation about cultural belonging and social justice, and the learning objectives of involving young people in participatory creative media projects from production through to curatorial phases. 
 
ManiFesta develop, produce and manage projects - using predominantly film and video – to explore and comment on key contemporary social issues. Selected excerpts from three creative projects will serve to introduce their work to audiences here:

• Belonging is a transnational based initiative in which young people from culturally mixed backgrounds - in London/Newham, Lisbon suburb/Casal da Boba and Paris/20th arrondissement - worked under the tutelage of creative video artists and filmmakers to produce 43 short films exploring various aspects of belonging – how layered migrations shape communities, and how young people manage multiple, flexible identities while belonging to more than one place.

• In Video ART Postcards, assisted by video artists and historians, participants uncovered sites related to historical racism and anti-racism in the West India Docks area of London and used digital media to creatively express their interpretations of this history and heritage.  At the end of the 5-day workshops, each young participant had produced a personal short video, or 'postcard', informed by their workshop learning.

• In Breaking into the Museum, each young participant produced a short film that responded to a particular object in the Galleries of London collection. This media led project promotes innovative intervention in heritage curating as an exciting form of 21st century cultural activism and engagement, while the 14 films produced provide a slate of challenging statements from young people aged 16 to 19 and from a diversity of cultural backgrounds – reflecting how they connect with ‘official’ history and heritage, as well as how they experience museum collections.

 
ManiFesta was founded by Colin Prescod and Marion Vargaftig, who together have developed and produced UK and international initiatives with the BBC, the International Broadcasting Trust, Save the Children, Separated Children in Europe Network, Runnymede, The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and other NGOs in the field of youth, creativity, cultural diversity and anti-racism.
 
After a twenty year career as an academic, Colin joined the BBC in 1989 and is currently Chair of the Institute of Race Relations, London, (and is a member of the editorial working committee of the IRR's international journal, Race and Class); Chair of the Association for Cultural Advancement through Visual Art (ACAVA), London; and Chair of Carnival Village Ltd, London.
 
Marion Vargaftig  is a leader/producer of European programmes and media projects, working at the interface of policy and practice. Her expertise is in developing projects associating media and culture as a catalyst for social change. She has a particular expertise in film and television - and has extensive international experience, initiating and delivering projects ranging from conferences, exhibitions, films, publications in many EU countries and beyond, and involving a variety of partners and funders.
 
Introduction:        Áine O’Brien, Director of FOMACS
Presentation:        Colin Prescod and Marion Vargaftig, Co-Directors of ManiFesta
Respondents:        Niamh Geoghegan, Young Urban Arts, Programme Co-ordinator
                              Gráinne Lord, City of Dublin Youth Services Board, Arts Officer
                              Jennifer Siung, Chester Beatty Library, Head of Education
                       
Venue:                    Chester Beatty Library
Time:                      11am - 3pm
 
Please note it is necessary to contact FOMACS in advance to register. 
tel: (01) 402 3006, or email info.fomacs@dit.ie

20 March, Sunday

Screening: Belonging (FOMACS/Immigrant Council of Ireland, 2010)

5 April, Tuesday

Public Conversation with ‘Refugee Youth’ London

Following their participation in the 2010 ‘Moving Worlds: Cinemas of Migration’ film festival, we are delighted to welcome back members from Refugee Youth to Dublin. This visit offers a unique opportunity to learn about an organisation that supports young refugees living in London to develop and lead their own advocacy and creative projects.  One such ‘action catalyst’ initiative is ‘Refuge in Film’ - a youth led film festival held annually at the British Film Institute in London and featuring a film programme curated exclusively by its young members. The festival is thematically organised around refugee and migration issues, offering an inspiring example of young people engineering a platform to, in their words, ‘catapult our own ideas and views’.  

In collaboration with the Irish Refugee Council

Venue:       Centre for Creative Practices, 15 Pembroke Street Lower, Dublin 2
Time:          5-7pm
 
Please note it is necessary to contact FOMACS in advance to register. 
tel: (01) 402 3006, or email info.fomacs@dit.ie

Practicing teachers, Liz Morris and Niamh McGuirk, have again written the accompanying Teaching Pack for New Beginnings with a specific focus on implementing the primary school curriculum. Building on the innovative approach established in both The Memory Box Teaching Pack and Team Spirit Teaching Pack, the individual chapters/inserts from this pack can be used in SPHE, History, Geography, Visual Arts, Mathematics and more. The topics covered include Undocumented Migrants, Discrimination, Newgrange, Festivals of Light, Ceremonial Fires, Winter Festival and the Pantomime, Exploring Language, Cityscapes, Religious Diversity, Faiths from around the World and Georgian Doorways.

Maureen O'Sullivan, Independent TD for Dublin Central and Teacher had the following to say about the pack:

“New Beginnings is a marvellous resource.  I really like the material - the ideas, concepts, class plans, links with other sources and resources, graphics, and quotations.  I particularly like the cross-curricular aspect, covering literature, history, art, religion, music, and media.  I think it will be challenging and demanding to teach but also very enjoyable.  I would love to be back in the classroom using New Beginnings with my students and recommend that it also be made available to youth clubs and youth projects”.

Please click resources for details on how to purchase this pack.

Moving Worlds: Cinemas of Migration returns with a diverse and contemporary programme of documentary and drama films from Austria, France, Germany, Spain, UK, and the USA. A selection of masterclasses, workshops and special events with filmmakers and digital media practitioners, contributes to a festival whose focus on migration is as timely as it is distinctive.

Through powerful stories revealing the emotional and material effects of contemporary migration within and outside Europe, Moving Worlds addresses the movement of individuals and families across national borders.

Themes at the forefront of the programme include: migrant youth identities and cultures; intergenerational family relationships; local responses to the arrival of refugees in a small town; daily encounters between frontline service providers and asylum seekers; the lived tensions between secular and religious identities; individuals undertaking perilous journeys in pursuit of a better life for themselves and the families left behind.

Access the full Film Festival Catalogue here.

We are honoured to host three Irish premieres at Moving Worlds. Neukölln Unlimited, directed by Agostino Immondi and Dietmar Ratsch, opens the festival telling the story of three young Lebanese siblings living in Berlin and their passion for hip-hop and streetdance.

View Trailer

Welcome to Shelbyville, directed by Kim Snyder, offers a glimpse of America at a crossroads – how a community in the Bible belt grapples with rapidly changing demographics.

View Trailer

Les Arrivants (‘The Arrivals’), directed by Claudine Bories and Patrice Chagnard, captures the highly charged encounter between social workers in Paris and newly arrived asylum seekers and their families from Sri Lanka, Mongolia and Eritrea – with or without passports or luggage.

View Trailer

Film directors, actors, writers and community activists as guests of Moving Worlds bring with them a passion for creative storytelling, allied to a conviction about the centrality of film and social media in mobilising new audiences and generating inclusive public dialogue about migration and social justice. The programme includes a series of masterclasses and workshops, building on content from the films and introducing parallel learning strands throughout the festival. Acknowledging the importance of young people’s participation in public debates about cultural identities and citizenship, the festival accords special status to two Youth Media workshops, which include: Youth Cultures and Digital Communities: ‘I’m Not Who You Think I Am’, facilitated by the festival’s social media consultant in residence, Howard Pyle (Ogilvy and Mather, New York), and a ‘Global Urban Music’ workshop with DJs Double V and iZem.

Moving Worlds: Cinemas of Migration is a unique collaboration between the Forum on Migration and Communication (FOMACS) and the European Union National Institutes of Culture (EUNIC): Alliance Française, British Council, Goethe-Institut Ireland, Instituto Cervantes Dublin and the Austrian Embassy Dublin, in association with the Irish Film Institute (IFI).

We wish to acknowledge all who have generously contributed to Moving Worlds. Specific thanks to the US Embassy Dublin for their patronage and support, and to Atlantic Philanthropies and Dublin Institute of Technology.

Booking information:
Tickets are available from IFI Box Office, 6 Eustace Street Temple Bar, Dublin 2
tel: (01) 679 3477, or at www.ifi.ie

Masterclasses are free of charge.
Please note it is necessary to contact FOMACS in advance to register.

Social Media Workshops

Youth Culture and Digital Communities Workshop:
‘I'm not who you think I am'
THU 9 DEC – 12.30 GOETHE INSTITUT
Online communities and digital communications are a central feature of youth relationships all over the world. Recent generations are the first to be unbound by geographic and language barriers when choosing friends and socialising. From communities based on skill or interest (such as gamers) to those shaped by ethnic, gender, sexual or religious identity, young people have a new world of opportunity to find and define their peer group. This workshop explores a small sample of communities to address emerging cultural identities, social hierarchy, and barriers such as the ‘digital divide’.

Supported by:
Crossing Cultures: Dublin City Dialogues FOMACS/Office for Integration (OFI), Dublin City Council

Social Media & Emerging Platforms: Turning audiences into participants
SAT 11 DEC – 10.00 CINEMA 3, IFI
The need to convince communities to care about a message is of increasing importance to many organizations – whether grassroots activists or Fortune 500 companies. From creating viral concepts to empowering evangelists, this workshop explores the role of social media and emerging digital technology as tools for amplifying messages in the support of social justice. With little more than an Internet account and a Facebook page, we have the ability to engage a global audience – but somehow it's just not that easy! This workshop covers practical planning and tactics for grassroots and policy engagement that filmmakers, advocates and activists can employ.


Howard Pyle, Social Media Consultant in Residence at Moving Worlds
Howard Pyle is a digital strategy expert and creative technologist with 15 years of experience. His work spans both digital and traditional media, with an emphasis on fostering community engagement and creating innovative ways to tie media channels together. In June 2010, Howard joined Ogilvy & Mather as Senior Partner, Global Director of Digital Platforms to work exclusively on their ‘Smarter Planet’ campaign for IBM. Prior to Ogilvy, he was Executive Director of Creative Development at TBWA \ Digital Arts, a global creative and strategy group focused on developing digital experiences and social media programs. Clients include Nissan (Zero Emissions), GSK, Pepsi (Refresh Project) and Visa Mobile. As Co-Founder and Creative Director of the boutique agency Local Theory, he developed integrated campaigns and digital strategies for Nokia, National Geographic, Fremantle Media and others. His work for Nokia included a branded TV show shot on mobile phones, distributed online and aired internationally on MTV. Prior to Local Theory, he was President & COO of Counts Media, developers of the mobile community Yellow Arrow and mobile products for Lonely Planet and Blue Man Group. Howard also serves as Chair of the International Digital Advisory Group for FOMACS. In 2010, Howard became a creative advisor to Roger Waters for digital and social media for the upcoming 30th anniversary tour of Pink Floyd’s, ‘The Wall’. He is also an accomplished photographer represented by Corbis and Getty Images.

A new FOMACS/OFI initiative screening diverse stories of migration - commissioned and produced by FOMACS - to create cross-cultural dialogue within local areas of the city. A programme of events, screenings and workshops will take place across Dublin city throughout November and December 2010 to mark the introductory phase of this year-long joint initiative between FOMACS and the OFI.

For enquiries please contact 'Crossing Cultures' Curator, Aileen Blaney: aileenfomacs@gmail.com / (01) 402 7126.

Animation Films: Dublin City Public Libraries

Abbi's Circle and Burden of Proof

Documentary and animation combine in Abbi’s Circle – an award winning 'documation' about migrant family life in Ireland. Developed in collaboration between FOMACS and its NGO partners, Abbi’s Circle draws from case studies in a series of three animated short films on the topic of immigration, with an emphasis on ‘family reunification’.

Made in conjunction with FOMACS and the Irish Refugee Council, Burden of Proof is a short animated film about the asylum process in Ireland and premiered in Dublin on 18 June 2010 as part of a European-wide series of events marking World Refugee Day.

The animations will screen out of school hours for parents and school children in selected Dublin City Public Libraries. Locating these screenings in Dublin City Libraries acknowledges the importance of stimulating dialogue about immigration and cultural difference in local spaces used and shared by cross-sections of the community.

Venue: Dublin City Public Libraries (see www.dublincitypubliclibraries.ie for list of participating libraries)

Times & Dates: December, see participating libraries for more details.

Admission is free

Documentary Film Screening: Promise and Unrest

Promise and Unrest

Promise and Unrest (Alan Grossman and Áine O’Brien, 2010, 79 mins) is an intimate portrayal of a migrant woman performing care work and long-distance motherhood in her role as sole provider for an extended family back in the Philippines.

The co-directors of the film will be joined by members of Dublin’s Filipino community for a post-screening discussion. In addition, there will be a Saturday matinee for migrant and Irish born youth audiences.

Venue: City Arts, 15 Bachelors Walk, Dublin 1.

Time & Date: Friday 12 November, 7 p.m and Saturday 13 November, 2.30 p.m.

Admission is free

Film Festival:

'Moving Worlds - Cinemas of Migration'

'Moving Worlds’ - a film festival collaboration between FOMACS, EUNIC (European Union National Institutes of Culture) and the IFI (Irish Film Institute) - screens films on migration and social justice, reaching out to established and new audiences.

Alongside the curated programme of screenings, a series of master classes led by filmmakers will highlight the politics of research, production and the creative process of putting a human face on social issues related to migration and social justice. Additionally, Howard Pyle (Senior Partner and Global Director of Digital Platforms - Ogilvy & Maher, New York), will occupy a residency for the duration of the festival to assist filmmakers and workshop participants in the use of social media to maximize the impact of their films and creative media. A series of ‘Youth Media’ workshops will also be held throughout the festival.

Venue: IFI, 6 Eustace St., Dublin 2

Time & Date: December 8-11 2010

Asylum Monologues: Sanctuary

Sanctuary is a series of ultra-short monologues of under one minute duration in which the stories of people who have sought asylum and received refuge in Ireland are recounted on screen and through live performance by Irish based actors and writers.

FOMACS in association with ‘Storytellers of Ireland’ and the Irish Refugee Council will present Sanctuary as part of a schools’ anti-racism programme aimed at developing the young person’s emotional and intellectual engagement with stories of asylum. In a series of intensive workshops, Sanctuary project partners will collaborate with secondary school teachers and students in the design of an educational programme aimed at encouraging students to act as producers and advocates of stories of asylum through creative writing and storytelling.

Venue: FOMACS

Time & Date: Saturday, November 20 2010, 10.30am-4pm

‘Storytellers of Ireland’ (STI) and FOMACS in association with the Irish Refugee Council will present Sanctuary as part of ‘Storytelling Beyond Borders’ – a free public event organized by STI with the assistance of The Arts Council.

Venue: The Irish Writer’s Centre

Time & Date: Saturday, November 27 2010, 2-5 p.m.

'Belonging' is a FOMACS/ICI production which took place across two weekends, offering young people a platform to express and reflect upon their everyday lives and views on the future. Working with photography, video and music, media acted as a catalyst for collective discussion about group and individual identities, friendships, the notion of community and family, race and religion. The workshops allowed participants to respond to issues of 'belonging' and 'home' and to take part in a lively conversation about emergent Irish identities and what and who is counted as being 'Irish' from the perspective of young people growing up in Ireland today.

Youth Media

'Belonging' is one of several FOMACS' ‘Youth Media’, projects where media is conceived as a tool for young people to be the creators and producers of their own messages, exploring cultural identities and enabling social change. As one participant at the 'Belonging' workshop said: 'We have a voice but we haven't been given the microphone'.

Stay tuned for more Youth Media workshops at FOMACS - specifically, a 'DJ Mixing and Music workshop' and a 'Youth and Social Media Workshop' at the forthcoming 'Moving Worlds: Cinemas of Migration' Film Festival in December.

To view other FOMACS Youth Media workshops, click here

'A Sikh Face in Ireland' exhibition FOMACS Educational workshops.

Photography and life history project ‘A Sikh Face in Ireland’ has been an enormous success, so much so that the Chester Beatty extended its run until 5 September 2010. Since the launch on 7 May 2010, FOMACS has collaborated with the Chester Beatty Library Intercultural Education programme and the Sikh Council of Ireland to run workshops as part of Bealtaine and Family Day.

On July 06th, 07th and 08th 2010 we ran a series of cross-generational workshops with young Sikh adults, teenagers and children to hear their voices and perspectives on a range of issues including cultural identity, the importance of accessing mainstream representation and creative arts spaces, together with concrete and positive ways to address and redress racism and discrimination.

The Sikh Face in Ireland education project facilitated young members of the Sikh community to reflect on and contribute to the photographic and life history project at the Chester Beatty Library.

Each group participated in an interactive and media-led workshop. The results of which can be seen below.

Burden of Proof is a short animated film about the asylum process in Ireland. It works with animation, voiceover narration and sound track to remind audiences of the historical context for the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees. This short 3 min project portrays the journey that a mother and son take in order to reach Ireland, apply for asylum and access safety.

The film was made in conjunction with FOMACS and the Irish Refugee Council and premiered in Dublin on 18 June as part of a European-wide series of events marking World Refugee Day. The animation will have an accompanying information guide and will serve as an educational tool to reach different audiences, including primary and secondary schools; and NGO outreach and community-led programmes.

Animator/Designer: Siobhan Twomey (FOMACS)

Script Writer: Róisín Boyd (Irish Refugee Council)

Aodán Ó Coileáin: Sound Designer and Post-production (FOMACS)

Produced by: FOMACS

Podcast on The Curious Ear, RTÉ One, February 2010.

According to The Curious Ear:

In this programme, Neltah tells the engaging story of her sister and a man named Taurai. Taurai and Melody grew up in Zimbabwe. Taurai was born albino and was taunted in the street because of it. When he first asked Melody out, she refused but her cousin 'blackmailed' her into accepting. She fell in love with him. Melody shared in the abuse Taurai received for being different. They also shared a life of laughs, cooking and gardening. They came to Ireland and had a daughter, Siobhán. Then, in 2008, Melody and Siobhán lost Taurai. In this story, Neltah hears from her family about their love and loss.

This programme was researched and crafted in the context of a FOMACS' radio mentoring programme Having Your Voice Heard, supported by the 'Migrants and the Media' project under EPIM and co-ordinated/produced by Roísín Boyd, a radio journalist working with FOMACS’ partner, the Irish Refugee Council. 

You can access the story here

The idea for Learning Lab stems from an understanding that ‘transformative education’ initiatives allow for communities of learners to emerge in a space outside the academy and within civil society.

The Learning Lab ‘Identities and Social Justice’ opens a space for a focused discussion on the theme of identities aligned with the concept of social justice. Learning Lab bridges debates about cultural identity with principles of social equality – connecting questions about race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, gender, culture, language and religion, in addition to youth and age.

Learning Lab is designed as a space in which a community of learners emerges over time; where the learning process is shaped by diverse social actors, including advocates, educators, community activists/leaders, media makers and journalists, union officials and social innovators.

Learning Lab creates a cross-sector learning environment where participants engage in collective dialogue, supporting a form of ‘learning in the context of our lived experience of participation in the world’, one which engages in and contributes to the practices of communities (Wenger).

Drawing on a series of established projects in Australia, Canada and the UK, Learning Lab sessions are led by three international public intellectuals, writers, and activists:

Andrea Durbach, Director of Australian Human Rights Centre at the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales, Australia

Handel Kashope Wright, Director of the Centre for Culture, Identity and Education, University of British Columbia, Canada and Board Member of the Highlander Research and Education Center, Tennessee, USA

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, UK based broadcast journalist, writer and public speaker on race and cultural identities

Learning Lab runs for three successive days, with three labs scheduled for April, May and September, 2010

If you wish to find out more about Learning Lab and how to become a participant, please visit Learning Lab and go to ‘Participating’ and fill out the application form.

Building on the combined work of FOMACS and the British Council, Learning Lab forges a collaboration that recognizes the complimentary interests of each partner, drawing on a range of resources and established cultural, social and political networks on the island of Ireland and beyond. Learning Lab works in association with Instituto Cervantes.

Abiba Ndeley was one of six migrant women taking part in a radio mentoring course, 'Having your Voice Heard', run by FOMACS. This radio mentoring programme is part-funded by EPIM (European Programme for Integration and Migration) under the 'Migrants and the Media' project.

The 12 radio classes, mentored and taught by broadcaster Roisin Boyd, explored a range of topics, such as the relationship between 'voice' and 'accent' - issues of particular interest to migrants who wish to break into the Irish broadcasting sector.

One day Abiba was telling Roisin about her neighbours in Pearse Street Flats in Dublin; Roisin said 'why don-t you interview them'? Suggesting that it would be interesting to hear how Abiba was now part of an inner city community in Dublin and to hear the voices of the women who live nearby.

Abiba's documentary 'Neighbours' is a brief snapshot of Abiba's life growing-up in Cameroon; leaving for Ireland and starting a new life in Dublin. It explores the similarities and differences of her hometown, Limbe, and her new found home in Dublin - in the city centre flats, where she lives with her husband and 4 kids.

Abiba says that 'when she first came to live in Ireland, she was given to understand that the society had changed over the years, and people were more likely to keep to themselves.

In the flats, however, she met with a completely different scenario. The kids especially were very friendly and took to her children instantly. She also found that her neighbours were very helpful and always willing to share valuable information and help out with various DIY chores.

The documentary celebrates the prevalent community spirit in the flats; the interviews with two of her neighbours, who are now more or less like family to her, highlights this'.

For more information see Having your Voice Heard

'Sanctuary' is a collection of stories of people seeking asylum in Ireland in association with Storytellers of Ireland and the Irish Refugee Council. In 24 ultra-short monologues, all less than one minute long, people who have sought asylum and received refuge in Ireland tell their stories – in their own words, but performed by actors and writers living in Ireland. From George Seremba's extraordinary story of escaping death in Milton Obote's Uganda, told by the actor himself, to the stories of children being sent into exile alone, of people stuck in legal limbo in the asylum system, and of people triumphing over huge odds to make new lives in Ireland, Sanctuary tells stories of loss, survival, tragedy and perseverance.

'Sanctuary' stars Sebastian Barry, Marian Keyes, Mick Lally, Eileen Walsh, Aidan Kelly, and other leading performers and writers.

Directed by Barrie Dowdall; Script: Colin Murphy; Casting coordinator: Jack Lynch; Camera: Joe McKeever and Barry MacNeill; Editor: Kevin de la Isla O’Neill; Producers: Áine O’Brien and Alan Grossman, FOMACS.

'Sanctuary' travels to public venues and classrooms across Ireland and is produced by FOMACS in solidarity with Ice and Fire Theatre Company, UK. The 'Sanctuary' project combines screenings of monologues with live performance, in addition to input from advocates at the Irish Refugee Council. Should you wish to find out more about this traveling show and book it for your organisation, please contact, Aileen Blaney, FOMACS Exhibitions Programmer at 4027126; or email:aileenfomacs@gmail.com.  

The 'Sanctuary' screenings are listed in 'more info'

For a related FOMACS’ project see ‘Living in Direct Provision: 9 Stories’.

For a range of like-minded media projects go to Links.

This combined DVD and booklet comprises documentation and commentary on the stories produced in the 'Undocumented in Ireland: Our Stories' Workshop - the result of a collaboration between FOMACS and the MRCI.

In addition to the digital stories on the DVD the booklet includes:

• A summary of the goals of the MRCI 'Bridging Visa Campaign' Group

• An explanation of the collaborative methodology underpinning digital storytelling

• A short updated biography of the storytellers alongside their individual scripts

• A brief description of the weekly workshop written by the facilitator and creative director, Darcy Alexandra

• A synopsis of what happens to migrant workers when they become undocumented

• Excerpts and recommendations from the MRCI publication 'Life in the Shadows - An Exploration of Irregular Migration in Ireland'

• A list of cross-references and links for further exploration, should you choose to research the issues in more depth

This educational package (with a combination of media and written text) offers a helpful guide for people wishing to discuss the issue of irregular migration in a variety of contexts.

Please click resources for details on how to purchase this pack.

An example of the work-in-progress of animator, Rory Byrne, and FOMACS' animation supervisor, Siobhán Twomey. The animated sequences with voice-over by union activist, Anton McCabe, will feature in the forthcoming documentary, 'Union, Ink and Paper', where you can find more information on the project.

Living in Direct Provision: Digital Storytelling Workshop

The 'Living in Direct Provision' Digital Storytelling workshop took place over a 6-month period (September 2008 - February 2009). The workshop ran in collaboration with our NGO partners, Integrating Ireland and the Refugee Information Service. Throughout, 9 storytellers engaged in a collaborative process that integrated storytelling, group and individual reflection, creative writing, photography and the use of multi-media technologies. They made a 3-5 minute story about their own experiences as asylum seekers and refugees.

The stories and perspectives produced in this workshop speak to a variety of issues effecting asylum seekers and families who have had or are currently living in the direct provision system. They speak to the experiences of separated and fragmented families; the lived effects of exile and social segregation; the impact on children growing up in the 'direct provision' system; a shared sense of wanting to contribute through work and to be a part of Irish culture and society; in addition to hopes for the future and new beginnings.

These subjective accounts are not intended to be representative 'asylum' stories but instead offer important subjective insights on what it means to live everyday and over time in the 'direct provision' system. The workshop and the stories provide a platform for individual expression - to have heretofore silent voices heard.

A comprehensive educational pack is currently being developed to accompany these stories and will be available for use. We'll keep you updated on this outreach product.

Go to 'More Info' for references to other digital storytelling projects in London and South Africa and for more background information on the direct provision system in Ireland.

See a selection of the digital stories below.

Committed to transferring knowledge and media skills to our partner organisations and extended networks, FOMACS hosted a weeklong facilitator training digital storytelling workshop in May 2009. Visiting workshop facilitators and trainers included, Daniel Wenshenker, Special Projects and Denver Office Director and Jennifer LaFontaine, Toronto Region Director, at the Center for Digital Storytelling, Berkeley, in addition to Darcy Alexandra, FOMACS' digital storytelling coordinator and PhD scholar in the Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice.  

This workshop explored the principles, methods, software tools, aesthetic considerations, ethical dilemmas, and curriculum issues that facilitators must consider when teaching or assisting with the digital storytelling process in their own environments.

Participants in the facilitation training included individuals working in and associated with partner organisations in FOMACS: the Irish Refugee Council, Migrant Rights Centre, Integrating Ireland, the Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice, alongside participants from the previous digital storytelling workshop ‘Living in Direct Provision’, in addition to AkIDwA and networks associated with the FOMACS ‘A Sikh Face in Ireland’ project. 

In May 2009, Colin Murphy hit the roads of Ireland on the campaign trail with some of the 40 immigrants who ran in the local elections. In Dublin, Limerick, Monaghan and Donegal, he talked to candidates and the people they were canvassing about the issues and the practicalities of local politics in Ireland. From Patrick Maphoso's activist independent politics on Dublin's northside to Anna Rooney's staunch support for the Government in Clones, this project charts the diversity of experience and opinion amongst an emerging group of politicians. Ultimately, the experience was a sobering one for many of those. "It will take a long time for people to get used to immigrants participating in the elections," said Maphoso, "but the first generation have to pave the way." In Letterkenny, Michael Abiola Phillips is also philosophical: "I won't be disappointed even if I don't get in this time around," he said. "It means I have to work harder."

The project resulted in a series of print articles and radio broadcasts. Articles ran in the Sunday Tribune and Le Monde Diplomatique (the latter accompanied by a podcast); a 20-minute radio documentary is to be podcast on RTE Choice and an eight-minute version will be broadcast on The Curious Ear on RTE Radio One at 6.45pm on December 5. A version of the 20-minute documentary has also been broadcast by Radio France International in the Crossroads programme.

Patrick Maphoso (right) canvassing in Dublin. Photo: Mark Condren, Sunday Tribune.

For related articles click here.

Additional Patrick Maphoso photo courtesy: Metro Éireann

Coordinated by Roisín Boyd, a radio journalist working with FOMACS' partner, the Irish Refugee Council, Having your Voice Heard, is a 12-week radio mentoring programme, part-funded by the 'Migrants and the Media' EPIM supported project. Other lecturers/practitioners involved in the programme include radio producer, Pat Hannon, and journalist, Colin Murphy, in addition to a range of visiting practitioners.

We have chosen a media mentoring methodology to facilitate skills transfer and access to the media industry for migrant women. Participants were recruited on the basis of their commitment to this field of media production and their desire to enter the media industry in Ireland. The decision to recruit women is to address a gender in-balance in the media, specifically in relation to the participation of migrant women.

The course is designed to introduce participants to the fundamentals of radio journalism in the context of the short documentary genre. In this framework, participants learn combined skills in audio and documentary production:

• Documentary research
• Recording skills and interviewing/oral history methods
• Writing for radio and pitching and marketing your story
• Principles of sound editing working alongside an experienced editor

The thematic for the mentoring workshop is 'The Family' following agreement of the participants.

The interviews featured on this page illustrate the mentoring methodology and the research and production process undertaken by the participants. Hear the voices and meet the participants in the photo voice sequence above, as they explore workshop themes in conversation with mentor, Roisin Boyd. Diverse ranges of subject areas are discussed, such as gender, identity, power relations, community, integration, memory, history and tradition.

See here for further details on the radio mentoring curriculum and workshop structure, in addition to outputs and outcomes.

Listen here to excerpts from all six stories.

A series of Spokesperson and Media Training Workshops took place over the course of 18 months with workshop leader/trainer, Frank Sharry (Executive Director of America’s Voice, Washington, DC). The workshops enabled key spokespersons to prepare and practice for high stakes media work; and to explore the viability of adapting the training model so as to conduct trainings for other colleagues and constituents.

The workshops were filmed with a two-camera set up by filmmaker Barrie Dowdall. Journalists participating in the workshops included Richard Delevan, Emer Woodfull and Frank Connolly. Many of the workshops focused on message preparation, practice interviews, campaign planning and the current media and communications challenges participants face in their day-to-day work. Workshops were designed to facilitate both the beginner and the expert to significantly improve upon their level of skill and comfort in their media work. Key areas of focus: ‘Public Opinion’; ‘Message Development’; ‘The Questions You Fear’; ‘Interview Practice’; ‘Campaign Planning’; and ‘Messenger Recruitment’. 

Dedicated workshops were also held with the Immigrant Council of Ireland Leadership Programme; in addition to advocacy strategy sessions with the Migrant Rights Centre, the Immigrant Council of Ireland, Integrating Ireland, Irish Refugee Council and Refugee Information Service.  

A 90-minute DVD of the workshops will be available to purchase in July 2009. 

See events archive for a full list of workshops. 

Abbi's Circle - New Beginnings

In the final chapter of Abbi's Circle, the group of friends prepare for their school's winter concert. The song they write together celebrates the fact that their diverse backgrounds form a strong unifying bond, but their performance hinges on the participation of Sanjay - whose family discovers they are at risk of becoming 'undocumented' and may be forced to leave the country.

It is, therefore, through young peoples eyes and their own sense of solidarity - what is fair and not fair - that the issue of 'undocumented migrants' is explored. A hugely complex area, to be sure, and one that is confusing at best for publics, as they try to make sense of the complicated policy and legal rhetoric surrounding the issue. Yet increasingly, it is children who are made most vulnerable when families either face the crisis of falling into irregular status or are living in an 'undocumented' - sans-papier, clandestine - state.

New Beginnings tackles the challenging issue of being undocumented in Ireland and explores how this affects the lives of families who fall out of regulated status through no fault of their own. Building on case studies produced by our partner the Migrant Rights Centre , the film portrays the inflexibility of a bureaucratic system, and offers an image of how a new generation of young Irish children might inherit a shared legacy of diversity and inclusion.

Team Spirit - Film & Teaching Pack

The animated short film, Team Spirit, is a follow-up to the award-winning Memory Box, and is accompanied by a new Teaching Pack that has been written by practicing teachers, Liz Morris and Niamh McGuirk.

Building on the innovative approach established in The Memory Box Teaching Pack, the strength of this pack is its focus on the primary school curriculum, offering suggestions for use in SPHE, History, Geography, Visual Arts, Mathematics and more.

The pack approaches global topics such as Refugees, Family Reunification, Sport and Racism by employing a combination of in-depth background information sections for teachers, together with a broad range of lesson ideas that are both child-friendly and age-appropriate.

The Team Spirit Film and Teaching Pack is a highly creative resource for teachers and an important, practical asset for intercultural education, one that promises to engage and captivate children.

This teaching pack is part-subsidised by State Street Philanthropy.

Please click resources for details on how to purchase this pack.

Production Overview:

Filmed over the course of a four-month period, this short film documents the collaborative process behind the making of Team Spirit, the second part of the Abbi’s Circle trilogy.  It captures the team in action, as they come together to translate the impact of public policy on real-life circumstances and to breathe life into the drawings and characters that make up the animation.

The team began by working with case studies from the Refugee Information Services. The Family Reunification and Integration Officer at RIS, Wale Mogaji, worked closely with director of the animation, Siobhán Twomey, dramaturge, Bisi Adigun, and primary school teacher, Liz Morris, to create a sensitive and measured depiction of the often traumatic and highly stressful situation that people in the family reunification process face on a daily basis. Together the writing team crafted the script, which began to take shape through developing established characters and situations from the first film, The Memory Box.

Once again we meet Abbi, who has to deal in her own way with the tensions caused between her everyday lived experience and the vagaries of government policy regarding migrants. The characters of Abbi, Lucy, Sadiq and Lillian were brought to life by a group of talented voice actors, under the careful direction of Bisi Adigun who worked closely with each actor individually, instilling in them a real sense of what the characters were feeling and going through - thus giving the story it’s resonance and poignancy.  Finally, Owen Tighe steered the production through postproduction sound to its conclusion, by polishing the music, voice tracks and sound effects.

Context and Mixed-Methodology:

Abbi’s Circle is a three-part animation film series addressing issues to do with ‘family reunification’ and the complexities of migrant family life in Ireland, involving writers, animators, young primary school children, NGO advocates, a dramaturge, a sound recordist and school teachers. The animation began in the context of a conversation with our NGO partners as they worked to translate and communicate the often arcane and legalistic language shaping their case files on ‘family reunification’ to a larger audience. Behind every case file is a human subject wishing to be reunited with a spouse, children or siblings, vulnerable to the intricacies and contradictions of immigration law in Ireland. How to get beyond the appropriate legalistic anonymity of the case file and render the issues real in the eyes of a diverse set of publics? This was our starting problematic. 

The core of the project emanated from a serious discrepancy in the ‘Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill’, which does not guarantee family reunification for legally resident migrants to be joined by their family members in Ireland. In the light of the fact that ‘The Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ expressly recognises that ‘the family is the natural unit of society and is therefore entitled to protection from society and the state’ and that the ‘family’ is also defined and protected in the same manner within the Irish constitution, our NGO partners argue for a statutory right for family reunification, drawing on similar provisions applying to refugees. It is also the case that while refugees (that is, people who have been granted refugee status) are entitled to family reunification, the application process is lengthy and filled with bureaucratic roadblocks, resulting in real hardship and pain of separation for families, particularly children.

Narrative agency is firmly placed in the hands of a group – aged between 9-12 – and who were attending a non-denominational school in Dublin. The reach of this agency was extended further, however, since each story in the animation series is accompanied by a teaching resource, written by teachers for teachers, designed to move across the curriculum through subjects such as English, geography, history, arts, music, etc. The director of the animation series, Siobhan Twomey, coined the term ‘docu/mation’, hence blurring the genres of documentary and animation. This allowed us to work from the original case files, which while written in the third person were based on authentic accounts as told to NGO advocates. It was clear from the start of this project that any media intervention could not ‘reveal’ the identity of immigrant families, who for obvious reasons did not wish to jeopardize their application for family reunification.

The collaboration is thus tested through a constant re-versioning of an original case study taking it through a detailed process of translation: in the first instance, with the writing of the animation script, a back story is stylized and rendered quietly dramatic, marking out a textual space for a cast of characters.  The move from the textual to the visual is mediated through detailed storyboarding – hand drawn and then digitised in the computer. Bisi Adigun who carefully choreographed the voices also conducted the casting for characters. It is here that the characters come alive activating a set of transnationalised spaces, reflecting what Roger Rouse calls the ‘transnational migrant circuit’ (spaces linked through familial, social and economic ties, comprising multiple yet interconnected networks).

Most challenging in this work has been the insertion of what Hamid Naficy, borrowing from Raymond Williams’ calls ‘accented structures of feeling’; in this case, the emergent accented voices of the young children performing the animated characters and who are part of a growing cast and network of co-producers illustrating the behind the scenes production team. The collaborative circle is widened further with the piloting of the project in primary schools across Ireland, in addition to the ongoing challenge of embedding the project in the national teacher-training curriculum.

In close collaboration with the Refugee Information Service and working from their case studies, Team Spirit continues the story of Abbi and her circle of friends, introducing us to Sadiq, a young convention refugee from Darfur. In this second installment of the animation series, the cast expands and yet retains a continuity of actors, while building a range of accents: Oyin Animashaun (Abbi); Lauren Murphy (Lucy); Ngor Tong (Sadiq); Yemi Adengua (Lillian); and Gabriel Peelo (Coach).

During a treacherous game of football against rival team 'The Bashers', Abbi and her friend, Lucy, find out that Sadiq and his mother are refugees living in Ireland. Sadiq explains that the rest of his family, along with his grandmother, is waiting in Darfur for their family reunification visas to be processed. Against the backdrop of a grueling football match, Abbi once again comes up against the gap between her lived experience and the vagaries of government policy regarding migrants. Sadiq's situation, like so many refugees living in Ireland, means that he has had to wait up to two years for his family's visas to be processed. In addition, he learns that his grandmother must remain behind in Darfur because she is not considered to be a family member within the narrow definition set out in Irish immigration policy.

Introducing an exciting new resource for primary schools on immigration and cultural diversity in Ireland: 'The Memory Box: Film and Teaching Pack'.

The Pack includes:

The pack has been written by practicing teachers, Liz Morris and Niamh McGuirk, with a specific focus on implementing the primary school curriculum.

It offers suggestions for use in SPHE, History, Geography, Visual Arts, Mathematics and more.

Click 'More Info' for further details on resource pack and a review by Barbara O'Toole, Marino Institute of Education.

Please click resources for details on how to purchase this pack. 

A Sikh Face in Ireland was first conceived at the FOMACS launch in 2007 when a group of young Sikhs - men and women led by Satwinder Singh - approached the photographer, Glenn Jordan, to ask if he would be interested in photographing the Sikh community in Ireland. It was a spontaneous request and a direct response to seeing Jordan's photographic work, Somali Elders: Portraits from Wales, at the launch. Yet it forcefully illustrated their collective desire to be fully represented in contemporary Ireland and to counter the stereotypical depictions of Sikh communities post 9/11, which they were confronting on a daily basis.

From its inception this photographic and life history project has been conceived as a collaborative journey and has moved from strength to strength during the past two years, culminating in the production of a 'living archive' of the Sikh community on the island of Ireland. Like all 'living archives' it does not claim to be an exhaustive portrait, but is, instead, vibrant and open-ended - to be viewed and explored by a range of interested communities.

(Dir. Alan Grossman & Áine O'Brien, 2009, forthcoming)

This documentary film (in postproduction), narrates the story of Anton McCabe, a trade union activist, and his commitment to equality in the workplace for non-EU migrants on temporary work permits in Ireland. For Anton, the exploitation of migrant workers by unscrupulous employers engenders a passionate engagement with workers' rights. The speed, volume and intensity of Anton's work is reflected in the hand-held close-up camera style of the film, capturing the 'messiness' of labour conditions for migrant workers in the 'low-skilled' economy. Anton is constantly on the move with mobile in hand, accumulating case after case, mediating between migrant workers in the construction, mushroom, meat and catering industries, and employers, immigration departments and the media. The film follows Anton's advocacy of three South African meat workers trafficked into Ireland by an industry preoccupied with the short-term gains of cheap labour from outside the EU. Anton helps to regularise the status of these workers, stranded by their Irish employer and 'undocumented' through no fault of their own, offering them and their families dignity and security. The film also documents Anton as he campaigns for a seat on local council and will feature animated sequences, produced by animator Rory Byrne, and FOMACS' animation supervisor Siobhán Twomey with voice-over by Anton, to narrate the conditions of migrant workers in his immediate locality. To find more information on this part of the project visit the project page here.

Shot over a period of three years and part-funded by the Irish Film Board, this ethnographic documentary film is an intimate portrait of Filipino nurse Fidel Taguinod and the public expression of his political activism, in dialogue with civil society representatives, challenging and probing the inadequacies of immigration policy in Ireland. The film poses a fundamental question regarding the promotional prospects of migrant nurses, working in the Irish healthcare service. 

Fidel leads the viewer through a series of migrant-led events, illustrating the political mobilisation of overseas nurses and how trade unionism develops in a rapidly expanding multiracial Irish society. Through a sustained period of observational filming on the hospital ward, the film depicts Fidel’s managerial competence, his working relations with patients, consultants, Irish and overseas nursing staff. Tracking the mobilisation of the Overseas Nurses Section of the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) from its inception, with Fidel as President, Here To Stay captures the evolution of political process over time, highlighting critical debates in Section meetings and within INO conferences. Fidel’s world outside the hospital environment, his domestic life where he lives with his Irish partner, is further explored, as is the negotiation of his gay identity in public performances such as ‘Miss Alternative Philippines’ and ‘Diva Manila’, in which he playfully mixes gay politics with migrant and multicultural issues.

Click 'More Info' for further details on this project.

Glenn Jordan's 'Mothers and Daughters', a series of portraits with accompanying texts, was exhibited at the Civic Offices, Dublin, and at FOMACS, in November 2007. This exhibition was opened in conjunction with the launch of the Immigrant Council of Ireland Report, 'Feminisation of Migration: Experiences and Opportunities in Ireland' by Jane Pillinger.

'The women in this exhibition are from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds. For example, the selection of images portrays subjects whose parents or grandparents were Indian, Algerian, Maltese, French, English, Irish, Norwegian, Swedish, West Indian, Ghanaian and Sierra Leonean - i.e., in addition to often being Welsh...I am interested in using photography and oral history to explore their journeys - their journeys across space (from one country to another) as well as across time (their experiences through their lives. I typically begin my interviews by asking: who are you? I record these interviews, so that their voices can be heard, together with their images' (Glenn Jordan, 2007).

Click 'More Info' for further details on this project.

'Photography often shows us things - people, places, faces, everyday life - we had failed to notice before. Through humanist, empathetic portraits of older Somali men, ‘Somali Elders’ seeks to open eyes - to confront stereotypes and misrepresentations. I hope the faces and experiences featured in this exhibition will be a source of education, inspiration and pride' (Glenn Jordan, 2007).

Glenn Jordan’s ‘Somali Elders’ series of portraits, with accompanying texts, was exhibited at FOMACS in March 2007.

Click 'More Info' for further details on this project.

These digital stories were conceived, edited, produced and shared within a community of learners. As producers of the media, using their own personal archives and crafting their script with an emphasis on the centrality of ‘voice’, these short 2-3 min pieces reflect a pedagogy of community based learning and media activism. Members of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI), ‘Bridging Visa Campaign Group’, have campaigned for the Irish Government to introduce a temporary permission to remain – or ‘Bridging Visa’ – to allow workers, who have become undocumented through no fault of their own, a route back into the system.

Abdel, Lyubov and Zaman came to Ireland with the hopes of building a better future for themselves and their families. From Morocco, Ukraine and Bangladesh, they entered Ireland legally. Due to diverse circumstances outside of their control, they fell out of legality. These three stories speak to their experiences as undocumented people from the perspective of the tellers themselves.

Click ‘More Info’ for further details on this project.

Promise and Unrest

Dir. Alan Grossman and Áine O’Brien (2010)

Separated from her daughter Gracelle at 7 months, Noemi Barredo left the Philippines for work in Malaysia to support her parents and extended family before arriving in Ireland in 2000. Filmed over a five-year period Promise and Unrest is an intimate portrayal of a migrant woman performing caregiving and long-distance motherhood, while assuming the responsibility of sole provider for her family back in the Philippines. Dublin may be a long way from Noemi’s hometown of Babatngon, yet she retains a sharp eye on the welfare of her family, attentive to a range of small businesses she has financed, paying for the education of her daughter and son, medication for her terminally ill father and her sister’s nursing degree. Through the camera lens, the film captures the everyday intricacies of Noemi and Gracelle’s relationship, their reunion in Ireland and the beginnings of a domestic life together in the same country for the first time. Promise and Unrest unravels a familiar yet subtle migration story of maternal sacrifice, loss and love, yet to be seen in Irish cinema.

For references on long-distance motherhood and women, migration and caregiving, see 'more info'.  You can also visit the official 'Promise and Unrest' website.

Festival Screenings 2010

Jameson Dublin international Film Festival, Real to Reel Section, Cineworld, Premiere Screening, 19 February.

11th EASA Biennial Conference, NUI Maynooth, 24 -27 August.

DMZ Korean Documentary Film Festival, Paju City, Korea, International Competition, 9- 13 September.

Cambridge Film Festival, UK, Documentary Section, 25 September.

16th International Film Festival ETNOFILM CADCA 2010, Slovakia, Main Competition, 29 September - 02 October.

San Diego Asian Film Festival, Jury Competition, USA, 21-28 October.

Waterford Fiim Festival, Ireland, 06 November

Festival Screenings 2011

Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick, Ireland, 15 February

Days of Ethnographic Film Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 7-11 March

Documentary and animation combine in this award winning 'documation' about migrant family life in Ireland. Developed in collaboration with our NGO partners and drawing from their case studies, Abbi's Circle is a series of three animated short films on the topic of immigration in Ireland with a particular focus on Family Reunification.

Aimed at 10 -13 year olds, their parents and teachers, each film has an accompanying Teaching Pack that has been written for 5th and 6th class. The packs focus on the primary curriculum, offering suggestions for use in SPHE, History, Geography, Visual Arts, Mathematics and more.

The 'Memory Box' was produced in collaboration with our NGO partner, the Immigrant Council of Ireland, and the story begins when Abbi, a young Nigerian girl living in Dublin, asks her father to visit her for the graduation ceremony that will mark her transition from primary school to secondary school. But Kunle, who has remained in Nigeria, is refused a visa so he cannot visit. In the end, Abbi sends him the memory box she made at school. Following the adventures of Abbi and her circle of friends, we experience the obstacles facing migrants wanting to be reunited in Ireland with their family members who are still living abroad.

Please sample the animated trailers, the teaching packs, and observe the collaborative production process behind the making of this animation series in 'Team Building: The Making of Team Spirit'.

The 'Memory Box' has been screened in a number of national and international film festivals, winning the award for Best Irish Short in the audience selection of 'The Stranger than Fiction' documentary film festival (Dublin, 2007). In addition, the accompanying Teaching Resource Pack takes the film beyond conventional exhibition centres and into classrooms and teacher training colleges across Ireland.

Abbi's Circle is part- funded by the Irish Film Board.

Click 'More Info' for further details on this project.

Irish writer and director Gerard Stembridge launched FOMACS on March 7, 2007. This video documents the launch and the accompanying exhibition of Glenn Jordan’s ‘Somali Elders: Portraits from Wales’. The Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa, Priscilla Jana, and Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, Washington, DC, also spoke. The launch was marked by the publication of a catalogue, ‘Close Encounters’, which explored issues raised by the forthcoming Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill through interviews with migrants.

Broadcast on RTÉ as 'one-minute wonders' during the week of 7-14 April 2008, The Richness of Change was initially conceived as a 'vox pop' but grew into a series of short documentary vignettes, highlighting the diversity of origin and of profession, amongst Ireland's immigrant population.

The Richness of Change, commissioned for a conference on the same theme by the Immigrant Council of Ireland and directed by Colin Murphy, works with the theme of 'diversity', with a focus on individuals contributing across a variety of sectors and to broad swathes of economic life and culture. Cutting across class, gender, race and ethnicity, the films offer brief snapshots of everyday life, illustrating the contributions that economic migrants are making.

Please click resources for details on how to purchase this pack.