For more than 10 years, Nadzeya Ilkevich has been working in the field of cultural management. Her experience includes producing TV projects in Belarus, creating intercultural and international music projects, making notable appearances at major conferences, and finally, establishing her own cultural platform and production centre in Vilnius for the local Belarusian (and other) communities.
Last year, Nadzeya and her colleague and filmmaker Varfalamei Kuraha travelled to the La Guarimba Film Festival in Calabria, Italy, with the support of the MOST mobility programme.
“La Guarimba is not just a festival, but an example of how a grassroots cultural initiative has managed to bring about major transformations in the city. It was very inspiring for us to see that with our own eyes”, says Nadzeya, reflecting on the experience.
Indeed, for the twelfth year running, filmmakers, directors, actors and film producers from all over the world have descended on the small provincial town of Amantea. And this year, representatives of the Belarusian cultural sphere also came to the festival. According to Nadzeya, she heard about this unique grassroots festival 8 years ago and dreamed of going — and now it has finally come true!
“The festival gave us the opportunity to speak personally to and build partnerships with key figures in the independent film industry: directors, producers and festival organisers. For example, we met the programme director of the Glasgow Short Film Festival, Oisín Kealy, and he immediately agreed to be a jury member for our annual film competition, KinaKaliady48”, shares Nadzeya in excitement.
According to the cultural manager, it was particularly useful to learn from the experience of the organisers of La Guarimba, who, like CreateCulture, run a music laboratory and a film camp in addition to the festival.
“Our Italian colleagues inspired us with practical ideas on how to harness the power of cultural events for the revitalisation of local communities. We also discussed with festival organiser Giulio Vita the possibility of holding La Guarimba on Tour at CreateCulture Space, as well as entirely new joint projects. We agreed to be in contact with Giulio in order to discuss ideas”, Nadezhda shares her plans.
Throughout the trip, Nadzeya and Varfalamei made a video blog about the festival, shooting documentary footage and recording interviews with interesting participants. They even hope that their small documentary blog about the festival will become the start of a new media product, CreateCulture Travel (working title), a blog about the hidden treasures of cultural projects and communities in the EU.
The La Guarimba Festival is also supported by EU programmes.
Here are some tips from Nadzeya Ilkevich for those who want to do a mobility in the EU
© Photo courtesy of the mobility participant
The MOST mobility programme is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Goethe-Institut