Current Projects
Epilogues Workshop Education Programme
How significant are justice and human rights for a democracy? What are the moral dilemmas facing a community in the aftermath of an act of extreme political violence? How should communities deal with the loss they have experienced? What are the factors that push people in such communities to support the taking of life? Can the use of violence for political ends ever be justified? What part does revenge play when political conflict becomes violent? What is the state’s responsibility in preventing or breaking the cycle of violence? Is forgiveness necessary for reconciliation and enabling people to move on? How significant are justice and human rights to the building of a sustainable peace? And at a deeper level still, what does violent political conflict reveal about the nature of ‘democracy’, ‘history’, ‘identity’ and our perception of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’?
Within inclusive workshops that respect all perspectives but equally permit all perspectives to be challenged, epilogues facilitates discussion and reflection on these and other key questions for peace bu
ilding. It does this by exploring ‘the conflict’ from the perspective of people who were part of it, or suffered as a result of it, and found themselves compelled to react to circumstances unfolding around them with what perspective they had at the time.
Programme Description
epilogues is an accessible workshop based education programme which uses a DVD and website to engage communities in the everyday work of peace building and responsible citizenship. It does this by exploring, within a workshop environment that models democratic process, six key themes that are central to an understanding of violent political conflict - Violence, Loss, Revenge, Forgiveness, Justice, & Human Rights. The exploration is deepened through direct engagement with the perspectives of both victims of, and the various parties to, the violent political conflict in and about ‘Northern Ireland’.
For further detail on the project please visit the project website
Animating Palestine
In 2003, Gaslight was invited to screen ‘SUNDAY’ in The Al Kassaba Theatre, Ramallah. During that visit the idea of a skills/resource exchange project with arts and educational organisations in Palestine was born. The kernel of the idea was to help seed film and animation techniques with children and young people with the objective of equipping them with new tools of creative expression.
The initial phase of the project took the form of a series of workshops organised by Gaslight in association with the British Council and the Tamer Institute for Community Education in Ramallah, as part of the educational outreach programme of The Ramallah International Film Festival in 2004. It saw two Derry based educator/animators, Jan Caspers and Gary Rosborough, travel to the festival to conduct a series of workshops. Jan and Gary have continued to work in Palestine extensively. Over the past ten years they developed a training programme for students and educators, covering all aspects of animation work in educational contexts. The training is delivered over the space of two years and still run in cooperation with the British Council and the Tamer Institute. Current trainees include youth workers in Hebron, deaf students in Ramallah and librarians throughout the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
The project is ongoing….
Why not check out the Animating Palestine website!