EuroMed-news

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Tunis, June 29th – July 1st 2009

On June 29th, Mr. Maaoui, Director General of ASBU, welcomed the teams from the Algerian, Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan and Syrian TVs in charge of the production of documentaries for the Euromed-News project.
Five teams gathering the head of project, a director and documentary-maker from each broadcaster involved, along with the Euromed-News Executive Production and a team from COPEAM, met in Tunis at the ASBU’s headquarters. Three days of study and cooperation that allowed to settle the basis for the production of a “collection” of nine documentaries aimed at portraying the human face of the Mediterranean, by treating subjects about the EU Neighbourhood Policy.
On day one, presentations about Europe, about ENP and a recall of Euromed-News’ goals allowed the participants to target their reflection and to identify the nine issues they will deal with. These topics were then submitted to the approval of the E.C., during a phone conference with Mrs Lucas who is in charge of the Programme. The participants had the occasion to describe to Mrs Lucas their idea and approach to the selected subjects and to ask the E.C. support in order to overcome the possible obstacles they could meet during the documentaries’ production.
Once she validated almost all the projects proposed, Mrs Lucas insisted in recalling the importance of both the content and aesthetic quality of these documentaries, aimed at communicating in a concrete way the idea of the “Mediterranean” and that will possibly be proposed to the audiences of both Southern and Northern Mediterranean shores.
The day after, 5 issues out of 9 were distributed between the present teams so that each one could start identifying the most effective angles of approach and the subjects directly linked with European projects that have been fulfilled or that are in progress:

-the Syrian television will produce a documentary about the symbolic and revealing places of intercultural and inter-religious dialogue;

-the Jordanian television will make a documentary about water that is a resource to be preserved;

-the Moroccan TV is in charge of the economic issue by emphasising the processes of investment and of micro-credit in the Area;

-the Lebanese television will deal with the preservation of the cultural patrimony;

-lastly, the Algerian television chose to work on the migration flows and most particularly on illegal immigration inside the Euromed zone.

The last day was devoted to the critical screening of programmes already produced by the teams outside the Euromed-News project, so to further fix the way of treating the topics and to establish the goals to be achieved both concerning contents and the quality of the planned items.

This working session was enriched by the expert eye of Mr. Hichem Ben Amar, independent Tunisian producer-director that had attended the European training Eurodoc Med in the framework of the Euromed Audiovisual II programme. He shared his experience with the teams and participated in the discussions and debates that took place in such occasion.

The workshop on documentaries ended on an useful intercultural dialogue on technical matters between professionals, and on the reciprocal sharing of the documentary-making practices.The five documentaries should be ready to be broadcast by October 2009. From then on, the production of the 4 remaining ones will be started.The 9 topics that have been selected are:

1. The water : a common natural resource

2. Alternative energies

3. Inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue

4. Economy and investments in the Euromed region

5. Immigration

6. Safeguard and preservation of the Euro-Mediterranean cultural patrimony

7. Women

8. Youth mobility in the Euromed Region

9. Mediterranean sea cleanup