Afghanistan Virtual Training, 2013

The Academy has continually prioritized International Outreach initiatives to expand the organization’s presence in the Middle East.  In April of 2013, the Academy took its first steps toward the goal of including Afghanistan in that scope.  Though the Academy has not yet been able to send an official delegation to Afghanistan, the Academy’s International Outreach Program organized a teleconference that allowed Academy members and staff to virtually participate in a three-day training program for Afghan filmmakers hosted by New Wave Cinema in Kabul.

Held from April 7-9, the workshop was organized by Business Council for Peace (Bpeace), a New York-based non-profit currently working in Rwanda, El Salvador, and Afghanistan.  Bpeace matches on-the-ground entrepreneurs with advisors in the United States who then travel to work with local groups and individuals.  Bpeace identified the group of Afghan filmmakers who went on to participate in the workshop and Academy-coordinated teleconference. Representing the Academy in the tri-country teleconference were Oscar-nominated documentarian James Longley in Kabul, director Sam French in Los Angeles, and producer Ariel Nasr in Montreal.  French and Nasr are the filmmakers behind 2012’s BUZKASHI BOYS.  Co-produced in Afghanistan and the United States, BUZKASHI BOYS was nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 85th Academy Awards.  French and Nasr are also two of the team members behind the Afghan Film Project, a non-profit foundation with a mission to tell uniquely Afghan stories while bolstering the Afghan Film Industry.   

Late in the evening of April 9th in Los Angeles, Ellen Harrington, the founder and then-director of the International Outreach program, gathered a small group in a screening room at the Academy’s Beverly Hills headquarters to host the teleconference.  Meanwhile, it was 8am in Kabul, where Longley planned to joined the workshop participants broadcasting from the New Wave Cinema.  When their internet connection went down, the Los Angeles and Montreal participants waited while the group in Kabul took a cab across town, eventually re-starting the workshop in front of the computer in Longley’s bedroom.  Also in this group was Nazifa Danishgar, who organized the workshop on behalf of Bpeace.  It was a fittingly far-flung bunch who came together to discuss the challenges of filmmaking in Afghanistan and world cinema in general.  With James Longley as a key speaker, the topic of discussion was largely focused on documentary filmmaking, and its significance in Afghanistan.

Partnering Sites: Business Council for Peace http://bpeaceworks.org/

Afghan Film Project http://www.afghanfilmproject.com/home