23. May 2012

VIENNA GOES L.A.

Stefan Beig, the co-founder of Vienna goes L.A., describes the remarkable idea:

The participants acquire cinematic knowledge in workshops before producing their own short film and presenting it to the public. One year ago, the US-American business man and film producer Robin Saban has initiated the project and so far, two schools in Vienna have successfully realised it. Now Vienna goes L.A. cooperates with LET’S CEE: Students from the Cooperative Middle School Schopenhauerstrasse 79, who have a particular interest in film, have been chosen to shoot a film during the film festival and present it to the public at the Strandbar Herrmann Pavillon on Thursday, 31st May. All of those children have a migrant background: Their parents come from Serbia, Turkey, Iran and other countries. „Vienna became cosmopolitan”, says Robin Saban. „I went to the tenth and fifteenth district. Young people here wish for visions.” The initiative enables them to „share something with others they’re proud of. This project increases their selfesteem. They present their own stories to the public and discover their creativity. What is more, they learn to cooperate with each other.”

For more information visit Vienna goes L.A.

Stefan Beig was born 1978 in Vienna. He studied composition at the Conservatory of Vienna (Konservatorium Wien) and philosophy at the University of Vienna. Since 2005, he has worked as a journalist and is also the coordinator of the Integrationsseite of the Austrian newspaper Wiener Zeitung, a daily-published page dedicated to intercultural living and integration, founded in 2010, with more than 10 people working on it. In 2011 Stefan Beig worked as an actor and a composer for a remake of Woyzeck. In the same year he founded, the integration-focused project Vienna goes L.A. together with the US-american film creator Robin Saban and Ippolit Wischin, head of the Academy of Independent Film Making in Vienna.

Photo © Vienna goes L.A.