The Open Air Cinema Foundation addresses growing technological inequity by providing ‘offline’ and underrepresented communities with the tools and training necessary to exchange their stories through local cinema screenings and regional open air film festivals.
Bringing Cinema to Every Community
Although a young organization, OACF has already partnered with a number of well-established corporations and organizations including Google, BBC, FilmAid International, UNICEF, Shine Global, ZOA and the Rwanda Cinema Center to produce large community screenings of educational films and documentaries for hundreds of thousands throughout Africa and Asia on current issues like women’s rights, conflict resolution and AIDS prevention. Through training and technical support we assist our partner organizations in bringing educational media to marginalized communities, creating an environment that encourages social interaction using memorable films and natural settings.
These efforts have proved extremely successful within villages and refugee camps in Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, & Tanzania. OACF’s inflatable screen technology has been used to educate hundreds of thousands in refugee camps on current issues like women’s rights and AIDS prevention. The systems are simple enough to set up and use for small events with a few people, yet large enough to accommodate gatherings of several thousand people.
The New Frontiers of Cinema
The Open Air Cinema Foundation is dedicated to bringing media of all kinds to the most remote villages of the world. Teaming up with non-profit organizations such as Film Aid and the Rwanda Cinema Center, we have employed our mobile outdoor cinema equipment to broadcast messages of equality, hope and joy, all the while improving the quality of life in these impoverished nations through the power of film. This is not merely a form of entertainment, but a catalyst for social change in many of these communities. We’ve also provided them with the knowledge, resources and opportunity to tell their own stories through this magical format.
Open Air Cinema Technology
Open Air Cinemas’s inflatable screen technology has been used to educate hundreds of thousands in refugee camps on current issues like women’s rights and AIDS prevention. Finding success in villages and refugee camps in Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania has only heightened our desire to increase our reach, and we are currently building relationships in Southeast Asia, in the country of Laos as well.
Our outdoor cinema systems are simple to set up and operate, making them perfect for events of all descriptions and sizes, regardless of where you are in the world. But having an inflatable screen without knowing how to properly use and manage it would be useless. For that reason, we are also dedicated to training locals in the use, care, and management of these outdoor cinema systems in their community.
Amplifying Voices Through Digital Storytelling
Our objective is to bring out new inspirations, giving voice to low or no-income communities living off the digital grid. Our innovation will be to palpably connect the best ideas from these communities through digital storytelling workshops, regional screenings and connection to online social media networks. Our mission is to foster dialogue between previously underrepresented communities, enabling them to share perspectives on, and solutions to, challenges within a regional and international context.
Linking Offline Communities Using Outdoor Cinema
The Open Air Cinema Foundation is the only organization to provide training in outdoor movie technologies to schools, government entities and non-profit organizations. We supply partner organizations with inflatable low-cost outdoor cinema equipment. Our certified volunteers provide training in appropriate audio-visual technologies to help our partner organizations educate, empower, and engage their communities through local media and film. We train our partners to set up and operate the systems, and guide them as they organize large community screenings of the stories their constituents create. For most, this will be the first time they see their own stories reflected back to their communities.
