Normale04
'another view is possible'

June, 3-5 2004
Linz ? Austria ? Europe

REPORT

Like the year before on the occasion of the 1st Austrian Social Forum (ASF) 2003 in Hallein the Normale04-program provided relevant images, background information and visualized topics of public interest, debates and strategies.

Normal is not only, what we are allowed to observe via commercial media. Therefore the 'Normale'-program features issues, which usually are not screened on television:
3.088 film minutes on global market, politics and crime, work and strike, north-south relations, migration and racism, war and what is called terrorism, pop and politics as well as the history of social movements.

The Normale reveals, how regional problems are reflected in global interrelations, how cross-border processes take place and how commercial media fail to report. The public awareness mostly obtain only desultory and falsified information. But dialogue needs information!

The screenings of the 'Normale' follow the principle 'understand to act' and contributes to an informed society developing democratic alternatives.

Because commercial media depends on advertisement they are not capable to report balanced. The creation of consciousness is a pre-requisite to participate in economical and political decision making. Thereby the intermediation of economic and sociopolitical coherences is vitally important.

77 documentaries - 3.088 minutes - in 3 days

From June, 3-5 2004 the Normale04 took place in Linz / Austria at three locations: at a film-tent next to the info-booths of the 2nd Austrian Social Forum, in the auditorium of the University of Arts Linz and at transpublic.at in the heart of town. The Normale04 screenigs were attended by 660 people and there was no entrance fee.

One challenge was very well received: The Normale04-programming also illustrated and visualized issues of discussion directly at event-locations of the 2nd ASF by film placement. So a vital interest was generated on the part of participating networks and organizations (see http://socialforum.at/sf/asf2_orgs) for continuation especially in regard to further educational and campaigning work.

Due to rainy and cold weather we had to deal with the following situations:
on the very first day the electronical equipment at the film-tent has been completely crashed by an electric shock - we re-organized new machines over night. On the third day, again at the central tents, we had to relocate because due to bad weather the music bands had to shift indoor. This caused several programm adjustments, which we finally completed.

In cooperation with 'globale' filmfestival (Germany-Berlin, December 2003) and the filmfestival 'other worlds are breathing' during the 4th World Social Forum (India-Mumbai, January 2004) continents were bridged:
The Normale04 screened documentaries coming from Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brasil, Canada, France, Finland, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Ireland, Iraq, Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, Tajikistan, Thailand, United Kingdom, USA and Uzbekistan.

The filmmakers Mark Achbar - Jennifer Abbot, Arlene Ami, Kelly Anderson - Tami Gold, Luis Acevedo Fals - Marta Harnecker, Nicole Baïer, Patrice Barrat, P. Baburaj - C. Saratchandran, Christian Datz, Rudi Dolezal - Hannes Rossacher, flo and chris haderer / kanalb.at, Leo Gabriel, Joost De Haas, Peter Hegedus, Hostnik, Sut Jhally - Loretta Alper, Monika Juozapaviciute, Karin Jurschick, David Kaplowitz, Renée Kellner, Suzanne Körösi, Hoonkyu Lee, Thomas Lindermayer and Sven Hilberth / utv.at, Werner Pichler, Norbert Prettenthaler, N.S. Nye, Marcus Relton, Katja Reusch, Ulrich Selle, Gregory Kennedy-Salemi, Carl Plötzeneder, Sheldon Rochlin, Claudio Ruggieri - Matthias Gugler, Jen Schradie and Matt DeVries, Matthias Schweger, Orzu Sharipov, Rakesh Sharma, Marc Silver - Max Pugh, Gregory Stitt, Harakka Timo, Silke Theiner, Matthias Thomasi, Rustin Thompson, Christopher Walker, Gaby Weber, Furkat Yakvalkhodzhaev, Zoe Young - Dylan Howitt contributed films on the following themes:

Work, outsourcing and exploitation, relocations, poverty, solidarity; imperalism and colonisation; agro business, nutrition and genetical manipulated organisms (GMO), pharma industries, bio piracy and patents; the return of neolibalism, global market, liberalisation and privatisation (GATS), Plan-Puebla-Panamá (PPP), operations by World Bank and WTO, the naivety and curiosity of small investors, politics and crime made by Coca-Cola, Philip Morris, Kraft Foods, Maxus, Shell, Texaco, Mercedes Benz among others; the myth of logos; trafficking supported by KFOR, SFOR, NATO, UN, IPTF und IOM, drug trafficking, sexism, rape; transition countries; human rights, racism, slave trade in football-business; environment, oil, mines and water; Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) vs. marketing gag; 9/11, foreign affairs of the USA, terror, active nonviolence, human shields; power of music, critics on corporate driven globalisation, history of social movements and social fora and alternatives like empowerment, participative budgets and democratisation.

The 'Young Normale' - cinema for schools - focuses on life realities, alternatives and supports global learning. Documentaries are combined with workshops e.g. on live and working conditions on growing cacao as well as workshops on media competence - because growing up means to understand, to identify correlations, to analyze and to ask questions.
The 'Young Normale' works for kids being 8+ years. After a very good start in Vienna in cooperation with media wien, the communal media department, a pilot project took place at two schools in Linz and was attended by 130 kids.

Thanx also for the lots of work of the honorarily committed Normale04-team:
Richard Apl, Franziskus Forster, Johannes Knöbl, Sebastian Lasinger, Arne Open, Matthis Podgorski, Renate Schreiber and Barbara Waschmann.