The organiser of the festival is the Bosnian-German association Aktion - Leben und Lernen in Bosnien e. V.
It was founded in 2014 for the purpose of direct emergency aid. The first impulse was given by Amela Halilović. The chairperson of the association, who lives in Bottrop, had experienced the Bosnian war (1992-95) as a child. She was interested in direct, everyday support for the people in her home town. She found comrades-in-arms in the "House of Diversity" in Bottrop and in the regional BIH community. Money and donations in kind were collected, a school exchange, educational trips and aid transports were carried out and thus contributed to the (re)formation of civil society structures in BIH.
Why a film festival?
From the beginning, it was both a prerequisite and a goal for the work of the association to make the people and their situation in Bosnia visible and tangible. As up-to-date, interesting, inspiring and well-connected as possible: in a new, not yet existing cooperation project.
Why not a format with the direct participation of participants in Bosnia and its neighbouring countries? Maybe even in cooperation with creative and improvisational actors there who have so far decided to stay despite their often desperately hopeless situation? On the basis of the medium of film, which unites all senses and art forms and promises multifaceted authentic topicality - and could bring many people together both intellectually and emotionally?
So why not dare to do all this - especially in the Emscher and Ruhr regions, where so many migrant communities from Bosnia, the Balkans and beyond live together with many "long-established" immigrants from just a few generations ago, forming one of the most exciting European metropolises? - And off we went.
