with WINGS and ROOTS

with WINGS and ROOTS...

…is a project about “wings” and “roots”, the stories and visions of children of migrants in two cities emblematic of global migration – Berlin and New York. Going beyond the abstract integration discourses, young people challenging narrow definitions of belonging, and in their own ways fighting for more inclusive societies, tell their own stories. Christina Antonakos-Wallace followed their lives for over five years.

These young people are the heroes and experts of the film. They address injustice explicitly, have creative visions for the future, and are yet deeply vulnerable. The style of the film reflects this: as an “observational film” Christina accompanies the protagonists in public and private, switching between languages and cultural codes. The common theme of seeking identity weave together these different stories across the continents.

with WINGS and ROOTS is much much more than a film:
Besides the planned 90 minute documentary film, which we hope to finance with your help, our film project encompasses two short films: 'Where are you from from?' and 'Article of Faith', now part of the “Media that Matters Collection” and winner of the Change Maker Award 2011.

We also offer youth, young adults, teachers, and facilitators educational and empowerment workshops, even as we continue to work intensively on our Timeline, an interactive website. The Timeline is a one of a kind “living archive”, a platform where users from all over the world can exchange notes and ideas about migration, the policies and politics of integration, identities, and understandings of belonging.

Our goal is to complete a rough cut of the film for post production! The 90 minute film is the very heart of the project. Now that all the material for the film has finally been shot, we need your support for the next step: we want to see the valuable material in the form of a 90 minute film.

Our target group includes all those who share our vision of a more inclusive society, and want to help us achieve it!
Whether you have personal experience with the themes of our film, or you are an educator, and see in the film project great workshop material for starting and deepening conversations on these subjects be it with school classes, youth clubs, or friends and acquaintances – we need every possible support!

with WINGS and ROOTS reframes questions concerning identity, belonging, migration, and discrimination from the abstract into the everyday life of its protagonists, rendering these issues personal, tangible, and visible.

The media's representation of our central themes often uses stereotypes and relies on recurring tropes, images, and characterizations in depicting the biographies and lives of migrants. All too often do such stereotypical representations go unquestioned, and all too seldom are the lived experiences of migrants and their children shown from their own perspective.
with WINGS and ROOTS attempts to change just this!

The project provides people with the space to express their experiences, personal struggles with everyday racism, as well as their explorations of identity and home.

If you, like us, are of the opinion that these questions are becoming more and more urgent in an ever more complex world, and require an approach that does justice to the delicate questions of self and identity, you are at the right place!
We would like to show you the rough cut of the film at the end of the year, and naturally look forward to your feedback!

If our funding campaign is successful, the 100 odd hours of film material will be edited to produce a rough cut.
If we make it to 10,000 Euros together, a rough cut is possible! With the rough cut we would apply to film distributors and broadcasters for further funding.

A breakdown of the concrete numbers:

▪ 6.000 € for an editor

▪ 3.000 € for a music composer 

▪ 1.000 € for graphics and animation

If we reach the funding goal of 35,000 Euros, the entire costs of the post production would be covered, and the 90 minute film could be completed in this year even. This sum would likewise be used for the editing, music, and graphics, for a high quality end version of the film.

Our project is by no means over once the film is done. But a milestone in the project's growth would be reached, and the very heart of it secured.