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Filmmakers Without Borders
Filmmakers Without Borders (or FWB) is a non-profit organisation which promotes the use of media trainings and intercultural learning opportunities to connect ‘underserved youth’ from lower-income countries with fellow filmmakers. Its headquarters are in New York City, USA. Its primary spheres of activity are the Fellow Program and Connected Classrooms projects, which raise civic awareness through the art of filmmaking, education and community interactions. Through the placement of fellow filmmakers in overseas partners’ sites, FWB reaches out to students from remote areas of the globe with adequate technology, trainings on Media literacy, filmmaking skills and 21st century communication tools. By doing so, the organisation strives to inspire “the next generation of digital storytellers” to share their stories and achieve a long-term impact in their communities. FWB has no link with Reporters without Borders.

History
While backpacking around the globe and teaching English abroad, filmmaker and educator Corey Boling was inspired to create a Peace Corps-like organisation, dedicated to promote the art of filmmaking as a mean to empower youth from remote areas of the world.

Boling gathered a network of educators, artists and international development experts to act as FWB Board of directors, e.g. Eileen Newman from the Center for Bronx Nonprofits, Caits Meissner and Flonia Telegrafi from the Tribeca Film Institute, Dr. Monique Scott from the American Museum of Natural History. Corey Boling then assembled his staff and Advisory Board whose members are experienced with years of teaching media to students across the US and involved in organisations ranging from the Educational Video Center, Charlotte Street Films, Results for Development Institute (R4D), Institute to the NYC Department of Education, just to name a few.

The team started up its activities by securing partnerships with schools, non-profit and community organisations acting as placement sites in target locations across Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Oceania. They already have a track record of exchanges which helped undeserved youth around the globe to learn ways to tell their stories through filmmaking. In addition, they have started to cooperate with NYC-based schools and organisations such as the Bushwick Film Festival.

Mission
Filmmakers Without Borders aims at infusing youth from underserved communities with a sense of engagement and empowerment to globally change the world through visual storytelling. Its core mission goes beyond merely sending fellows from the US (and potentially Europe) in placement sites to teach specific skills to youth. It intends to enable young people to become change-makers by becoming aware of their role within their respective communities and societies while mastering the skills and craft of visual communication.

Main Activities
The Fellowship Program run in partnership with host placement sites, which is the core work of the organisation to date. Experienced professional filmmakers are offered the opportunity to spend one year abroad as volunteer media educators. Fellows work directly in overseas classrooms and teach local students ranging from middle and high-schools how to make short films and other multimedia projects. The process involves skills building activities (such as leaning creative writing, storytelling techniques, shooting and editing, etc.) and the production of three major short-film projects. While fellows oversees this learning process on site, FWB provides technical and logistical support throughout the year.

Connected Classroms. FWB team facilitates a closed collaboration between students from abroad and from the U.S. (up to January 2014, schools based in NYC) so that they can co-work on a film project and experience a long-distance cultural exchange, using modern communication software and online tools.

Outreach to local and global audiences. FWB supports both students and fellows from post production to distribution in order for their works to be exposed online and throughout the film festival circuit (both in-country and back in NYC).

Organisation
Currently, FWB, a registered 501(c)(3) organisation, consists of 10 staff members. It has a Board of Directors along with an Advisory Board including filmmakers, art educators and development experts. The organisation has been recently established by Corey Boling, FWB Executive Director, a filmmaker and educator who has worked considerably with such non-profit organizations as the Tribeca Film Institute, The Educational Video Center, and the Museum of the Moving Image .

Partners are schools and community organizations that FWB cooperates with to ensure the promotion of culturally specific and sustainable educational practices. So far, they secured partnership in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Honduras, India, Kenya, and Nepal, as well as Tanzania and Thailand.

FWB fundraises donations to fully cover the total cost for one-year fellowships (flights, housing, travel insurance, basic monthly stipend). In its start-up phase, Filmmakers Without Borders’s online campaign on the Kickstarter crowd-fundfing platform resulted successfully in gathering 117 backers donating $23,365.