Call for Video Documentaries

 The first-ever  National Conference on Volunteerism with the theme of Volunteerism - the Spark of Inspiration will be held on 14th - 15th October 2014 to celebrate the new era of volunteerism which the National Volunteering Secretariat will introduce to Sri Lanka. This conference seeks to explore scholarly findings and expert views on the impact of volunteerism on the country while lighting and brightening small sparks of inspiration to volunteering in the hearts of Sri Lankans to build and rebuild the country. 

Innovative, original and analytical video documentaries are invited to be included in the conference. The documentaries should focus on one of the five themes given below (Refer Table I). One best documentary will be selected under each theme and will be played during the relevant Seminar Session at the conference. Two other documentaries under each theme will be selected to be played during the refreshment times of the conference. All shortlisted documentaries will be published in the NVS official website. Please note that there is also a possibility of telecasting the five best documentaries on television. A person who submits a documentary pertaining to the guidelines  will automatically be eligible to delegate at the conference, and this will be notified to the submitter via email. 

* Themes

Documentaries should be on one of the five themes given below. The content should be in depth, well researched, analytical and precise. Ideally the documentaries should be on volunteerism in Sri Lanka or they should at least be relevant to the Sri Lankan context. For instance, a documentary could compare the volunteering situation in Sri Lanka with one or more of other countries under a selected theme. 

Themes of the Conference

1. Responsibilities of Volunteering on Post conflict Development, Peace, Reconciliation, Social Integration and Reintegration
2. Impact of Corporate Volunteering on Economic & Social Development
3. Providing Economic Value to Volunteering Contributions
4. Impact of Youth Volunteering on the Development
5. Impact of Volunteering on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)

*Time Limit

All documentaries should be less than 10 minutes; ones that exceed this limit will be disqualified from the competition.

*Deadline: Extended to September 15, 2014

Video Documentaries  should be uploaded to youtube and the link should be sent to hewage.fernando@undp.org via email by September 15, 2014. 

* Guidelines for Documentaries

• Note that the documentaries will be evaluated based on their originality, relevance to the themes, communication strategies used, the A/V quality and the subject matter.
• The content of the documentaries should not offend any religion, race, creed or person.
• Documentaries could be done by individuals or groups of 5 or less.
• English subtitles should be provided, if any other language other than English is used in the video.
• The preferred video format of the documentary is HD (1080p). Video formats lower than HD will also be accepted as far as clarity and steadiness are safeguarded.
• Video Documentary should be uploaded to youtube and the link should be sent to hewage.fernando@undp.org via email. Please write "Video Documentary Competition_Your Last Name, Firstname" in the subject line of the email.
• The selected documentaries will have to hand over a copy of the documentary in a blue ray disk to NVS. 
• The documentary should be compatible to be played with Windows Media Player (Version 9.0 and above) and Quick Time player (Version 6.0 and above). The shortlisted videos need to be uploaded on the official website of NVS.

*Questions and Concerns

Any question or concern should be addressed to National Volunteering Secretariat directly to any of the following contact details.

1. Email: hewage.fernando@undp.org
2. Telephone:  011-2187005, 011-3560447, 011-7202652