Volume 4, Issue 2, 1999
Table of Contents

The Bosnian Connection

Heat and humidity hang in the late-August air as we enter the MacDonald Cartier International Airport in Ottawa to meet the Toronto flight of Milan Trivic and Denis Vila, two filmmaker connected with the ACCC Bosnia Media Training Project. The Bosnia Media Training Project is a three-year, $1.5 million initiative funded by the Canadian International Development Agency and designed to improve the management, functioning and quality of television broadcasting in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project will assist the industry to generate sources of revenue, and encourage the public to develop a trust in objective, facts-based reporting and better quality programming. Working with the Open Broadcast Network (the only cross-entity independent network in Bosnia and Herzegovina) and selected television outlets, ACCC is providing the practical, hands-on training in advanced journalism and production techniques, investigative reporting, computer applications, management and marketing needed by the relatively youthful managers and employees of this industry.

Mr. Trivic and Mr. Vila are in Canada to film the fifth segment of a six-part television program called The Bosnian Connection. The program documents the new lives of Bosnian refugees living in Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and Canada. Mr. Trivic is a renowned documentary filmmaker, director and correspondent working for the Open Broadcast Network (OBN) and London Television in the United Kingdom. An investigative journalist in Sarajevo during the war, Mr. Trivic joined his family as a refugee in England in 1995. Mr. Vila, although a very well-known radio personality in Mostar, is an intern with the Bosnia Media Training Project who hopes to learn the art of documentary filming, editing and production. Both are enjoying their first whirlwind visit to North America, sweltering in the Ottawa humidity, but enthusiastic about the Canadian multi-ethnic environment.

The first stop in Ottawa is the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina where an interview with the Ambassador, Mr. Krunoslav Vasilj, is scheduled for 2 p.m. As the set is arranged, Mr. Trivic operates the camera while Mr. Vila engages Mr. Vasilj in conversation about the role of the Embassy and the climatization and problems of Bosnian refugees in Canada. The majority of Bosnian refugees to Canada arrived in 1991 and settled in the province of Québec, mainly in the Sherbrooke area. Many stayed for three or four years before moving to other large, urban centres such as Toronto and Vancouver, due to language considerations. Mr. Vasilj has been resident in Ottawa for one year and has many insights to offer viewers into the Canadian way of life.

Next, it’s a quick drive up to Parliament Hill. Several scenic vistas are captured on film, including the CIDA building on the North side of the Ottawa River. The older buildings of the Peace Tower and Centre Block give Mr. Trivic and Mr. Vila a sense of Canadian history and a visual contrast to the concrete blocks and skyscrapers of downtown Toronto and Ottawa. The next day, scenes for the program are filmed in Montreal at Restaurant Sarajevo, a well-known meeting place for Bosnians. Although each story captured is unique, all of the interviewees stated that they are better off in Canada, at least for now, even though family members may have been left behind or resettled in another country.

Back in Sarajevo, The Bosnian Connection was edited by Mr. Vila, under the supervision of Mr. Trivic, as part of his production training at the OBN. The program was aired October 1, 1999 by 17 OBN affiliates giving the film national prominence. With a traditional musical score and various artistic renderings, the medium of film really brought the plight and hopes of these refugees straight into the hearts of those who watched the documentary. Subtitling for Canadian presentation was done by OBN personnel and the Project Coordinator, Adina Mahic. The ACCC secretariat recently held a screening of the 40-minute segment filmed in Canada.

Although high profile and exciting, The Bosnian Connection is but one outcome of the Bosnia Media Training Project. Over the next two years, ACCC and its member institutions will be assisting in developing an objective, non-partisan and professional broadcast network in Bosnia and Herzegovina which reflects the aims, aspirations and culture of its viewers and supports the development and survival of a newly emerging and democratic society.

Algonquin College, George Brown College, Grant MacEwan College and Humber College will continue to provide technical and professional training in television journalism, news direction/production, assignment editing, documentary journalism and production, audience and marketing research, financial management and television network at the OBN hub and its affiliates. As such, the work of Mr. Trivic and Mr. Vila on The Bosnian Connection and the possibility of airing the program on the Canadian Broadcast Network (CBC) will be invaluable in generating awareness among Canadians about the project, the role of colleges and Canada’s connections to Bosnia and Herzegovina.