About us


What is StrangerFestival?

StrangerFestival is Europe’s platform for young video makers & fans.
In 2008, StrangerFestival is organising:

  • More than 35 workshops in more than 20 countries
  • An open competition for young video makers
  • The StrangerFestival in Amsterdam 3-5 July

The theme of StrangerFestival 2008 is 'you'.

The Stranger website will grow into an open archive of European videos. Clever tagging will link the videos and makers to each other.

StrangerFestival believes that new media offers great opportunities for interaction with cultures other than your own. We communicate in the new and universal language of video.

For all questions please contact us.

And...

Stranger is a truly European initiative that's for, by and with young people. It´s all about where they are, who they are, what they do and where they want to be. And it's all on video.

COMPETITION
Stranger gives under 25-year-olds across Europe tools and space for self-expression. It provides a platform for videos by thousands of young Europeans with a diversity of languages, backgrounds and dreams. With video workshops and debates more than 20 countries and an open competition that leads to a festival 3-5 July 2008 in Amsterdam. A network of a dozen European public broadcasters from Turkey to the United Kingdom supports the competition and shows the best works after the festival. Stranger is intercultural dialogue in a fresh manner, focusing on the individual but also reaching out to diverse communities.

3-5 JULY 2008: EUROPEAN FESTIVAL IN AMSTERDAM
The highlight of Stranger is the international Stranger festival at Westergasfabriek in the heart of Amsterdam. Screenings, workshops, parties, awards and debates gather thousands of young people from the Netherlands and beyond making Stranger Festival a genuinely European event in Amsterdam.

More than 300 young video makers from all parts of Europe will be invited to participate in the video workshops, debates and screenings together with hundreds of international experts. The festival shows a wide range of videos from strongly political to pure entertainment and from experimental arts to video blogging. At the festival all activities – even the meetings for the professionals – start from the point of view of the young makers. Stranger Festival turns expertise on its head. Decision-makers and journalists will be invited to the festival to listen and learn.

WWW.STRANGERFESTIVAL.COM
The website will grow into an open archive of thousands of videos by young people from all parts of Europe. Clever tagging will link the videos and makers to each other. Voting and commenting makes the website participatory and fun. Blogs by young video makers guide the visitors to interesting videos.

STRANGER EXHIBITION ACROSS EUROPE
Stranger festival will also premiere the Stranger exhibition – large thematic video exhibition on today´s young Europeans. After the festival the exhibition will travel to dozens of museums across Europe.

RESEARCH
A research on the makers and their videos will be conducted by the British think tank Demos. The research will be published in autumn 2008 with events in Amsterdam, London and Berlin. The research provides teachers, cultural operators, the entertainment industry, parents and journalists a fresh take on who are today´s young Europeans and what do they strive for.

EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL
The website will provide young video makers and cultural organisations with tips and tools for making videos. Educational material will be produced to help civil society organisations and teachers to work with video. An educational DVD collecting the best works will be published in autumn 2008.
Stranger promotes sharing and doing things together, which is why the entire project is run under the non-commercial and non-exclusive Creative Commons license.

Stranger is an initiative of the European Cultural Foundation with a network of European partners.
Check the press page for promotional materials.