Building on last year's successful launch of PLURAL+, a youth video
festival on migration, diversity and social inclusion, the United
Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the IOM would like to
invite the world's youth to submit dynamic and forward-thinking
videos focusing on these issues.

Young people between the ages of 9 and 25 are invited to submit
from 1 March to 30 June 2010 short videos of one to five minutes in
length.

The videos should express participants' thoughts, experiences,
questions and suggestions on migration, diversity, integration and
identity, highlighting their realities as well as ideas on
developing a peaceful coexistence in diverse cultural and religious
contexts. 

A prestigious international jury will select three winners in
three age categories (9-12; 13-17; 18-25).

Each winner will be flown to New York and honoured at an awards
ceremony at the Paley Center for Media later in the year. 

In addition, PLURAL+ partner organizations will award other
exciting prizes and professional opportunities. These include
co-productions and a chance for awardees to gain international
exposure by presenting their work at film and video festivals,
conferences and events around the world.

The aim of PLURAL+ is to ensure youth engagement in these
important issues both at local and global levels by mainstreaming
their voices through a variety of media platforms and distribution
networks (broadcast, video festivals, conferences, events,
Internet, DVD) around the world.

Last year's festival not only provided young people with an
effective platform to express themselves on key migration and
diversity issues, but also the opportunity to reinforce the belief
of the UNAOC and IOM that youth are indeed powerful and creative
agents of social change.

"Last year's PLURAL+ participation demonstrated how young people
across the world are willing to creatively engage in complex social
issues such as migration and cultural inclusiveness," said Marc
Scheuer, Director of the Alliance of Civilizations. "We were very
pleased with the quality and relevance of the entries received, and
we are thankful for the commitment of PLURAL+'s partners in
supporting the distribution of these videos at festivals,
conferences and TV broadcasts around the world."

"We were pleased to see that the PLURAL+ 2009 entrants shared
their thoughts, struggles and fears about their identity as youth
as well as migrants. The true voice of PLURAL+ is found by
listening to a segment of the population which is not only entering
a new society as a migrant, but also entering adulthood as well,"
said Luca Dall'Oglio, IOM Permanent Observer to the United
Nations.

The winning videos from the 2009 edition of PLURAL +  will
be presented throughout the year at several events sponsored by
partner organizations such as BaKaFORUM, Anna Lindh Foundation
Forum, Chinh India Festival, Roots and Routes Festival, COPEAM
Conference, the Royal Film Commission of Jordan's Filmmakers
Workshop, Havana Film Festival's Red UNIAL, and NEXOS Alianza.

In addition, broadcasters such as Aljadeed TV (Lebanon), TV
Futura (Brazil), RAI (Italy) and United Nations TV affiliated
networks will air the winning videos.

Information including guidelines, rules and regulations, and the
entry form can be found at the PLURAL+ website at: "paragraph-link-no-underline" href=
"http://www.unaoc.org/pluralplus" target="_blank" title=
"">www.unaoc.org/pluralplus.

For further information, please contact:

Jordi Torrent

UNAOC

Email:  "mailto:plural@unaoc.org">plural@unaoc.org 

or

Amy Muedin

IOM New York

Email:  "mailto:amuedin@iom.int">amuedin@iom.int