This was a groundbreaking project led by the E.U. , in partnership with Particip GmbH (Germany) and Media Diversity Institute (UK), with far reaching implications for the future of EU Foreign Policy.

The “Global Exchange on Religion in Society” (GERIS) saw the European Commission recognise the role of faith and non-faith civil society practitioners in addressing and shaping policy, with a focus on diversity, social inclusion and cohesion.

Creating, connecting and empowering a transnational network of community-based actors, civil society organisations, practitioners, religious leaders, experts and academics, the project visited six places with a history of complex social cohesion issues: South Africa, Deep South USA, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Morocco, Belgium and Indonesia.

Through the depths of COVID lockdowns, we engaged and travelled with participants to all six countries, documenting and promoting the activities. We developed a narrative structure and social media series plan for each visit; giving visibility to the project and its notable participants and surfacing the issues encountered and explored. For each country visit, this comprised six short social media films of c.1min, gradually building anticipation and engagement with the issues, as well as one 4min country visit overview film.

Guiding and empowering participants with self-shooting skills in preparation for each trip, we ourselves employed a nimble, unobtrusive, social media friendly, mobile phone shot approach while on the ground. This allowed us to build trust, engagement and the space for participants to freely express their developing thinking on the issues presented by each country visit.

Watch each full social media series: South Africa, Deep South USA, Morocco & Indonesia.