"Smartphone Documentary Film Production" training for young authors from the region will be organized at the AJB DOC Film Festival.

Students of the Performing Arts and Film Academies, producers, journalists and all creatives can apply for the "Smartphone Documentary Film Production" training organized by the Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival (AJB DOC), in cooperation with the Al Jazeera Media Institute from Doha with support of the project „"Women lead the way towards peace and security in Bosnia and Herzegovina". The training will be held from 14th to 16th September in Sarajevo.

Applications for training for young authors are open to all interested parties until 7th August 2024.

The training will be facilitated by Faris Bajrić, who has more than twenty years as an ENG camera operator. For the last eight years, he has worked as a VJ (video journalist) and is one of the creators of the AJB video platform that produces video content for social networks. After completing MOJO (Mobile Journalism) courses in Berlin and Sarajevo, he began actively using mobile phone for creating video content.

Having recognized the global trend of filming documentaries and feature films with smartphones, the organizers of the AJB DOC Film Festival decided to offer a training in this field. The training has been held for several years now, and it gave rise to the emergence of SmartDoc - a new AJB DOC selection featuring the best trainee projects, which were awarded upon completion of the training and implemented in cooperation with the organizers.

Once the training is completed, all participants will have one month to develop their ideas for a smartphone documentary film. The training facilitator and representatives of the Organizer will select the best idea for realization, and award it with a prize of 1500 Euros, Samsung sponsor’s award and mentoring support in the filming process

Award-winning projects will also have the opportunity to be screened at the next edition of the AJB DOC Film Festival, as a part of the new SmartDoc selection, intended exclusively for young authors who use new technologies.

The partners of this year's training is the project " Women lead the way towards peace and security in Bosnia and Herzegovina", which is implemented under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary-General's Peacebuilding Fund in BiH (PBF) in partnership with the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project is implemented under the leadership of the United Nations BiH Resident Coordinator, and it is jointly implemented by UN Women, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The 7thAJB DOC Film Festival will be held in Sarajevo from 13th to 17th September 2024.