At the Be Fearless NGen-Case Foundation event in New York City, Executive Director Blair Glencorse presented his idea for an anti-corruption film school for women and girls in Liberia. The proposed project would involve five-week, hands-on training sessions in Liberia’s two largest cities, Monrovia and Buchanan. The schools will build understanding of corruption, accountability and conflict issues, and provide the participants with the skills to direct, produce and edit short, low and no-budget documentaries about important problems in their communities. The project aims to empower women and girls, who in many ways are excluded, as a corrupt system skews access to power and resources towards men. This project is particularly tailored to the Liberian context: 60% of Liberians cannot read or write and society demonstrates a largely visual and oral culture, yet there has never before been a way for Liberians learn how to tell their stories through film.

Following Blair’s presentation, the Case Foundation extended the Lab with a $1,000 grant to begin implementing this project. Within 2 years, this project is expected to result in over 200 Liberian women and girls trained as filmmakers and accountability advocates and over 400 short-films produced and published online. These films will be shown in popular community-based “movie houses” and at biannual film festivals and award ceremonies facilitated by the Accountability Lab. They will be used as a means to build discussion on issues of conflict and accountability, and to catalyze action to build enduring peace.

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