Filmmakers Without Borders
Filmmakers Without Borders – Ready to share your skills with the next generation of digital storytellers? We cover the total cost of flights, housing, and travel insurance and even pay participants a basic monthly stipend to cover food for one full year. Additionally, our experienced staff provides a wide range of professional development and teacher training opportunities to ensure that our filmmakers are also confident and effective educators.
‘Filmmakers Without Borders’ is fuelled by creative minds operating at the intersection of art, education, and technology. Headquartered in New York City, our team of professional educators, filmmakers and technologists is committed to leveraging the filmmaking process as a vehicle for promoting student empowerment and cross-cultural exchange in the developing world.
What’s included? We cover the total cost of flights, housing, and travel insurance and pay participants a basic monthly stipend to cover food for one full year.
Help Required
As a volunteer, you will teach filmmaking, media literacy, and technology skills to underserved students in your chosen location. Students create short film and multimedia projects throughout the year. Volunteer applicants must meet the following criteria:
- Be a native or native-level English speaker.
- Have a bachelor’s degree.
- Be between the ages of 24 and 54.
- Have a documented interest in working with underserved populations.
- Have at least 2 years of film-related and/or teaching experience.
- Be highly flexible, and mature and have a genuine interest in teaching
Hours & Roster
- Successful applicants will teach 16-20 hours a week. Classes comprise 10-15 students varying in age from 12 – 18 years old.
Sleeping: We cover the cost of flights and housing for one full year. Participants will be provided with round-trip airfare to their destination city. Participants will live together in homestays, apartments, or houses.
Linen & Laundry: Laundry facilities available.
Eating: All meals are provided (3/day).
Transport: All transport costs are covered for successful applicants.
Filmmakers Without Borders – Amenities & Preferences
- Males and females accepted and welcomed.
- In addition to their teaching schedule, all volunteers shoot and edit two short films and one feature film throughout the year-long placement.
- 24 hours a day, 365 days a year support.
FILMMAKERS WITHOUT BORDERS (FWB) is an educational nonprofit organization that is dedicated to empowering the next generation of digital storytellers. Through various grants, educational resources, and international fellowships, FWB provides youth from underserved communities with technical training, media literacy skills, and digital tools to leverage the creative process as a means for interpreting their role in their society.
A registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. EIN: 46-5335859
FILMMAKERS WITHOUT BORDERS (FWB) supports emerging storytellers from around the world via filmmaking competitions, contests, and other funding initiatives. Prizes and honors are awarded to a variety of narrative, documentary, animation, experimental, and new media projects each year.
FWB encourages young, emerging filmmakers from around the world to submit their film projects. The submission process is designed to showcase each respective project’s alignment with FWB’s mission as well as to outline the filmmaker’s goals and motivations. All applicants complete an online application and submit a variety of supporting materials including a video essay. The video essay is an opportunity for applicants to introduce themselves, describe the project, and explain what it means to them.
The FILMMAKERS WITHOUT BORDERS (FWB) fellowship program sends experienced filmmakers and educators around the world to teach filmmaking, media literacy, and technology skills to students from underserved communities. Fellowship placements are available across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
FWB partners with an extensive network of schools and educational organizations across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Fellowships are available in both urban cities and rural villages where Fellows regularly infuse local traditions and practices into their classrooms and creative projects. From the Himalayan mountains to the African bush, Fellows live and work in many of the world’s most vibrant and dynamic communities.
FWB provides professional equipment, an innovative curriculum, and engaging resources for use in all FWB classrooms. Fellows teach daily, helping students develop their critical thinking and collaboration skills through the creation of various multimedia projects. After the academic year, students produce a local film festival to showcase their work and share their ideas and perspectives with members of their community.
Creativity is at the heart of every FWB classroom. Fellows provide students with the framework to share their experiences, express their ideas, and interpret their role in their society. Throughout the academic year, students work together to create a portfolio of multimedia projects that showcase their ideas and perspectives.
Additionally, participating Fellows utilize the creative process as a vehicle for gaining a more meaningful understanding of their host community and culture. Throughout the fellowship, Fellows produce a variety of photo and video projects that explore themes of tradition, identity, place, and history.
What projects do students produce throughout the academic year?
- photography projects
- short documentary films
- short narrative films
- public service announcement videos
- commercials/advertisements
- 2D animation projects
- stop motion animation projects
- music video projects
- sound design projects
- interactive media projects
- map-based multimedia projects
- What are some topics Fellows explore in their weekly video vignettes?
- local community
- historical locations
- interesting people
- cultural traditions
- musical performances
- day in the life
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