MONTENEGRO

Text and movie by Antonio Mendoza

Judith Jones, the Cultural Affairs attache of the U.S. Embassy in Montenegro, organized the MY HERO /GLOBAL EXCHANGE Workshops in the American Corner in ther capital city, Podgorica. While we were in Montenegro, Ms. Jones also donated her time and resources to help bring technology to the orphanage Bijela, the only orphanage in Montenegro.

For the MY HERO Global Exchange Workshops a selection of students, teachers, artists and media professionals from throughout Montenegro participated in the event. During our first session we introduced the participants to The MY HERO Project, values-based storytelling and digital filmmaking.

The participants of the workshops were enthusiastic and eager to learn and test their new skills. In our five days there, our Montenegrin colleagues produced eight videos, including a remarkable piece about a group of Roma (gypsies) breakdancers from a slum outside Podgorica called Konik City. Another video, Search for a Hero, by Jelena Joksimovic and Nevenka Vuksanovic, is a fanciful search for heroes through the streets of Podgorica.

On our final night in Montenegro we had a screening at the Kic "Budo Tomovic" Dodest Theatre of the work done by the participants as well as several award-wining videos from the 2006 MY HERO Film Festival and the U.S. EXPRESS Anthology. In attendance, along with staff members from the U.S Embassy, were several young breakdancers from Konik City who were featured in the video.

In 2008, Timur Makarevic, our GX partner in Bosnia and Herzegovina, held a second set of workshops in Podgorica, thus further promoting the concept of cross cultural exchange within the Balkan region. During this second workshops, several outstanding films were produced. Most notable were, Our Hero Mileva,, by returning participants Jelena Joksimovic and Nevenka Vuksanovic, and A Picture, about a local artist and the source for his inspiration.