WORKSHOP ORGANISER: BRITTA WANDAOGO
PROJECT MANAGER: BETTY SCHIEL

Paradise Park started in 2017. It uses an outside broadcast truck owned by the Faculty of Design at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf – Peter Behrens School of Arts, gathering information but also conducting research in the city, involving members of the public and staging media events. With various cameras, a drone, an editing suite, a live broadcasting unit, live video transmission and access to the internet, the vehicle is equipped for flexible communication between the university and the city.
The outside broadcast truck will be part of a two-day workshop out in the streets of Cologne with film-maker Britta Wandaogo. Under the slogan »I speak so you don’t speak for me«, participants will shoot a video to be presented at the IFFF Dortmund | Cologne as part of the ABOUT GERMANY programme.
Where do I stand? Who am I? What is real? What holds my world together? Who’s in charge of my life? We all seek different ways to express ourselves. When the world outside collapses or the most unbelievable things happen, the question arises: What part of it all can (not) matter  to me? What do I have to say? Experimenting with ourselves in front of and behind the camera is a bold step and an adventure.
Workshop participants aged 18 to 30 are also recruited with the help of the DAKO e.V. association, collaboration partner to the project. DAKO e.V. was founded in 2004 to forge links between Germany and Africa in the fields of education, medicine, economy, environmental protection, women’s and children’s rights and culture. The association also actively supports the interests of African citizens in Cologne. This includes providing advice on integration issues, holding seminars as part of the project »African Parents of German Children«, and organising regular meetings and activities in the »caféfamilia« in the Alte Feuerwache socio-cultural centre. These activities focus on constructively raising awareness and educating. This enables traditional African knowledge to be preserved despite the adoption of Western technologies and cultural aspects, and an enrichment of the relationship between the continents.

In cooperation with: Hochschule Düsseldorf, Peter Behrens School of Arts, Paradise Park, ZAK NRW, DAKO e. V. und Alte Feuerwache Köln