DEBATE

FOCUS: ON THE FRINGES OF SOCIETY

DEBATE: Saturday 12 November 14.00 hours

Zaal 5 of Filmhuis Den Haag. Free admission. The streets of Amsterdam are more and more populated with East European Roma, many of them play music on the streets, at metro stations and on big squares. Who are these people? What do we know about them? What kind of opportunities do they get in the countries of their origin? The statistics show that there is a big number of Roma children in South East Europe that cannot access their basic right to education. Only a few of them reach university level but most of them do not follow any kind of education. We want to focus on films that deal with Roma children and what kind of possibilities they have – or lack – to go to school. We provide several excellent documentaries that bring us positive examples and depict stories of children who are still eagerly following their education and choosing for the path of hope, in spite of hardship. In this program, ENFF also brings several films that deal with the notion of crossing (state) borders. Like Roma people, who often change places, many people are crossing borders as refugees. They are pushed out of their countries due to war at home. What chances do refugee children have to follow a normal education in today’s Europe? What do we know about these people? How keen are we to find out? In our DEBATE, done in collaboration with EUNIC, we will try to assess what the opportunities are for education among communities on the fringes of European society today. Speakers are the filmmakers of the films from our program, as well as Dutch experts and lecturers. One of the key speakers is Josip Kesic, PhD researcher and lecturer European Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Moderation: prof. Nenad Fiser.

FILMS:

CAMBRIDGE, by Eldora Traykova, Bulgaria FLOTEL EUROPA, Vladimir Tomic, Denmark/Serbia SCHOOL TIME FOR MISS ROMA, Vesna Cudic, Croatia MINOR BORDER, Lisbeth Kovacic, Austria TITITA, Tamas Almasi, Hungary TOTO AND HIS SISTERS, Alexandar Nanau, Romania
in collaboration with EUNIC EUNIC