UNISDR launches new video competition
By Brigitte Leoni
Bangkok – The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) is launching a new video clip competition under the theme “Promoting Investments for Resilient Nations and Communities”.
The initiative, in partnership with the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) of Thailand and Thai Public Broadcasting Service, follows the success of the Film Festival at the Fifth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, in Indonesia, in October 2012.
“We invite all participants, youth, students, media, film makers, experts and the general public to participate in the video competition and to see how they view disaster risk reduction issues. Their voice matters to us especially now we are discussing the successor of the Hyogo Framework for Action” said Brigitte Leoni of the UNISDR Asia Pacific office.
The competition aims to showcase the benefits of disaster risk reduction policies for nations and communities and how investing in prevention measures can make the world safer against disasters.
A jury composed of professional broadcasters from Thai PBS and disaster experts from DDPM and UNISDR will select the best video clips according to four categories:
Category 1: the best video produced by Youth/Students/Young People
Category 2: the best video produced by Media/Film Makers/Professional Producers
Category 3: the best video produced by NGOs/UN/DRR Experts
Category 4: the best video produced by the General Public/Other group
The winner of each category will receive a prize of between USD1,000 and USD2,000 at a Gala Ceremony during the closing ceremony of the Sixth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, in Bangkok, on 26 June 2014.
Participants have till 31 March 2014 to submit their video clips.
More than 50 films entered the last event in Indonesia and UNISDR and its partners expect more entries this time.
At the 2012 film festival, in Yogyakarta, the human interest category was won by Kazol Rekha for her entry “Kazol on the Flood”. The video was woven around the life of the 24-year-old, who is living with disabilities in a flood-prone part of Bangladesh.
The winner of the disaster risk reduction was a film from Indonesia titled "The Voices of Earthquake". The best disaster risk reduction investigative story came from the Republic of Korea, titled “Memories of a Summer Day 2012.”
To know more about the submission and selection process for the 2013 competition click here