Youth-Made Videos on Diversity and Social Inclusion Wanted

By Iminza Keboge
Published March 25, 2017

Young people aged up to 25 years have till June 4, 2017 to submit their original and creative short videos focusing on migration, diversity and social inclusion for consideration by the United Nations.

United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the co-organisers of the competition known as PLURAL +, say they are looking for videos running up to five minutes for the competition that runs in the PLURAL+ Youth Video Festival in New York, United States of America.

UNAOC and IOM say the annual event that has been held since 2009 encourages youth to address key challenges and opportunities related to social inclusion and cohesion, migrant integration, respect for identity, diversity, human rights and xenophobia, both at local and global levels through video production.

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“PLURAL+ provides youth around the world with the opportunity to submit real stories told by real people, which when widely disseminated help to foster intercultural dialogue and understanding as well as respect for diversity and tolerance,” says Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations.

UNAOC and IOM say three PLURAL+ International Jury Award winners in each age category–up to 12, 13-17, 18-25–receive US$1000 besides being invited to the Big Apple, all travel expenses paid, to present their work at the PLURAL + Festival Awards Ceremony at the Paley Center for Media. They say their partners award additional prizes and professional opportunities to more than 20 of the best videos submitted, partners award winning videos will be invited to present their work at film and video festivals, conferences and events around the world.

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In addition to the three International Jury award winners, PLURAL+ 2017 will also provide, for the first time, the “PLURAL+ Award for the Prevention of Xenophobia”, and the winner will also be flown to New York to participate and present his/her video at the PLURAL+ 2017 Festival and Awards Ceremony.

Saying the youth “make up a large portion of today’s migrant population,” William Lacy Swing, Director General for International Organization for Migration, says young people “have something valuable to tell us about their migration experiences. And this is what PLURAL+ aims to achieve: to provide young filmmakers with a global platform to share their thoughts and experiences with us.”

Interested? Get cracking.

Further information on the event, including guidelines, rules and regulations and the entry form, is available at pluralplus.unaoc.org website.

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