#16

May 4, 2014

Volunteering at the European Young Audience Film Day

This year, for the second time, at the film theatre "Kino Citadele" was held the European Young Audience Film Day, during which 12-14 year old judges at 17 countries simultaneously watched three European movies that are widely acknowledged as particularly excellent. I had not heard about this event before and found its description as well as the whole idea very intriguing. Therefore and because - considering age of the audience - I saw a great opportunity to communicate with teenagers, I, once again, decided to participate as a volunteer. 

Having to adjust my time to the train schedule, I arrived at the cinema twenty minutes earlier than the volunteer meeting was set, at 9.30am. Still, just as I was approaching the theatre, which had not even opened at the time, I received a phone call from the volunteer coordinator with whom I had collaborated before and who apparently trusts me to the extent of putting me in charge of other volunteers. Hence, after meeting up with her in less than ten minutes, I was given three volunteer T-shirts that were to be handed out to those who did not have one already, and - only because I asked  (Monta herself was evidently in hurry) - the chief organizer's phone number, which proved very helpful. 

Indeed, as I got back to the theatre, the number of teenagers waiting for the building to open had more than doubled, yet I was the only volunteer that had arrived in time and nobody seemed to be waiting for me. Thankfully, I could phone the organizer Zigita who, sounding extremely relieved to have an extra helping hand, immediately rushed to let me in through the back entrance. Then, since we were already running out of time, I could not waste a second to appreciate the notable changes in the cinema's interior that had occurred since my last visit more than two years ago, and was given work right away.

First, I was assigned small but relatively important preparatory works, such as getting the auditorium ready for the soon-arriving audience by placing a bottle of water next to each seat and embellishing the cinema halls by putting up two large posters advertising the event. Second, when the children were finally allowed to come inside the theatre, my task was to hand out the "jury booklets" where they were later writing their movie reviews, and the headphones with receivers that were used to hear the translation in Latvian and actually understand the context of the movies. Since I was doing this alone and the children were coming almost all at once, managing to give everything to everyone and making sure they did not rush to their seats without having taken one of the three essential objects turned out to be harder than expected. Only when the majority was already gleefully sitting in the auditorium with gigantic bags of popcorn in many of their laps, another volunteer arrived and overall was very little help. Also, contrary to the information Monta had given me, he had his own yellow volunteer T-shirt and thus did not deserve another one. 

The third volunteer, however, crept in the auditorium approximately half an hour after the beginning of the first film and, despite being older than me, seemed to be more interested in watching the movies than actually doing good deeds. Not only did she refused to put on the volunteer T-shirt due to it being medium size instead of extra small, which I hardly doubt would have fit her, - she was reluctant to communicate with children or do anything at all. Of course the opportunity to watch these excellent movies was nice, but still - if that was her foremost motivation - I genuinely feel sorry for her.

Even more so considering that, apart from giving candy to the most active audience members during the brief discussion after each movie, helping if somebody's headphones were not working properly and ensuring that nobody wandered too far during the coffee breaks (muffin-and-slushie breaks, rather), the volunteers had no other task. We could, in fact, enjoy the movies - even the third one called "The contest", which was streamed after the end of our shift. Although I did not stay to watch it, about the first two movies I have only the best to say. Not being a fan of either typical German movies or horses, "The Windstorm" was a pleasant surprise, for - regardless of the predictable fairy-tale-like ending - I really liked how the story about Mika, a girl possessing a rare ability to connect with horses in the most unusual way, was developed. Yet, the Dutch movie, "Regret!", to my mind was a lot better, mostly because the theme of being bullied sent a much deeper message to the audience. Beautifully directed, I think, this film deserves truly deserves to get the award, although quite possibly the monotone auditory translation ruined the movie for those who chose to use headphones, not read the English subtitles like I did. As far as I heard, the translation was literal and lost the meaning of some words, making me very glad about being able to read the English translation.

After the first two films had ended, my last task was to give the T-shirts to the volunteers who had applied for the evening shift. Saying that I had to wait would certainly be an exaggeration, since the three girls actually arrived in time. With that concluded this interesting volunteering experience, which I enjoyed a lot. 

I was able to take only a few photos, but here they are:

the poster I put on the auditorium door

box containing the receivers, used together with headphones

during the audience discussion after The Windstorm

the basket of candies I was handing out

the wrist band given to jury members and us - the volunteers

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My reflections

Although seventeen countries annually engage in this grand event, with Latvia being one of them for the second time, I had not heard about it event before, and initially curiosity was one of the main reasons I decided to become a part of it by being a volunteer. Having already proved myself to the volunteer coordinators at Riga 2014, I was given the honour to be in charge of the other five volunteers, even if it resulted in only a few additional responsibilities. For instance, I had to see that everyone arrived, give them the yellow volunteer T-shirts and make sure that the chief organizer gave them something to do. However, because this "promotion" was rather rushed and sudden, I had neither the names of the other volunteers nor their phone numbers, which was unfortunate considering that out of the morning shift volunteers I was the only one who arrived in time. Thankfully, apart from having to do the most complicated parts of the work by myself, the absence of others was not exactly my problem, though I did feel sorry for the twenty-year-old girl whose attitude clearly showed that her motivation did not exceed seeing the movies.
 Despite the irresponsibility of my colleagues, the tasks we were assigned to do were not particularly tough and were mostly enjoyable. I prepared the auditorium for arrival of the audience by placing a bottle of water next to each seat as well as by putting the official posters on the entrance door and the nearby walls. Also, I handed out the Jury booklets and headphones with receivers so that the teenagers could listen to the monotonous translation whilst watching the movie, and this turned out to be the hardest task since it had to be done very quickly. Even though later - during the brief discussion after each film - I got to give candy to the most active participants, neither activity gave me the opportunity to communicate with these teenagers, at least not to the extent I had hoped. Thus, while I enjoyed doing the small tasks I was given and while watching the movies was certainly a pleasant way to spend time, I was slightly disappointed as one of my objectives - conversing with people considered to be at the toughest age - was not achieved. Nevertheless, by choosing to watch the movies in English instead of Latvian, I could, at least, test my language skills. In addition, the fact that I was in charge of the volunteers allowed me to improve my leader skills and the ability to organize effective group-work, about which I am very glad.
All in all, I spent a nice day in a pleasant company, made new acquaintances and helped this wonderful event come to life. In general, I am happy with the outcome.