Rima (www.rimaproject.org) is today launching a three-day digital storytelling workshop, being held by Italian journalist Francesca Vitalini and Ethiopian film director Dagmawi Yimer. This workshop will be examining the elements that are required to create a story and to share it through social media.

Participants will first have the opportunity to brainstorm story concepts on the theme of migration, exile, objects of memory and objects of/in displacement, then create short texts, pictures and videos with their smartphones, and finally share them as a method of self-narrative through the new social media platforms.

Being an interactive workshop, the Rima project aims to achieve two specific goals: make room for participants to express themselves by using storytelling techniques  and to give them the opportunity to acquire the relevant skills in the field of social media management and photo and video production.

By putting an emphasis on creativity and critical thinking, participants collaborate with each other in order to identify stories and performance techniques that most powerfully convey the experience of communication in the 21st century.

Open to individuals who have experienced exile and migration in the past, participants at the Rima project will be selected at the discretion of the Rima team, with the number of participants being limited to six.

The workshop (which is free for students or unemployed) is being held at St James Cavalier, Valletta, today and tomorrow between 5 and 7pm and on Saturday from 2 to 5pm. Bookings may be done by phone on 2122 3200 or via www.rimaproject.org/2/39/Digital-Storytelling.