In 1995, the Dayton Agreement brought the wars in the former Yugoslavia to an end. There were no winners, as the result was a redrawing of the ethnic map that led to states that were more ethnically homogenous but tainted by guilt and silence. Many parents did not share their past with their children out of anger, or guilt, but some youngsters did not sit still and are digging into their own recent history. Will the silence be broken?
This case is an example of a difficult past. Some people are trying to “silence history”, while others are trying to investigate the past and discuss it in public. So, how should we deal with a difficult past? This is the question that young people will try to answer in this project.
We start all projects with a 10-minute starter clip from the In Europe documentary series, in order to introduce the topic in a vivid way. There is room for discussion on different levels. After two lessons with historical context and background information, students will start making their own short documentary (5-15 minutes) in small groups. Seven tutorials will teach students all about research, interviewing, filming and editing. The teacher will upload the videos to the In Europe YouTube playlist where you can find all videos made by students from all over Europe. The upload tutorial will help teachers to do so.