WSO is currently looking for a Web Developer/Graphic Designer. Do you know any talented students looking for experience in a non-profit organization setting?

WSO is planning to relaunch our brand, including our logo and online presence, later this year. We are looking for creative interns to assist in this major overhaul. It will involve a significant redesign of our entire website, both in its design and organization of information. We will also be incorporating our new brand into our brochures, Keynote presentations, and curriculum materials.

We envision this to be a perfect opportunity for an ambitious student or recent grad that wants to be a part of a new and refreshing non-profit organization as we seek to introduce ourselves to Hollywood film industry professionals in the fall of 2010.

The candidate we are looking for should have knowledge of the following: CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Dreamweaver, WordPress, Keynote, and Adobe Creative Suite programs, not to mention a strong sense of design, style, and layout.

This will be an unpaid internship in Los Angeles, CA, in the summer of 2010. For more information, please email us a resume and links to any sample work here:

info [at] worldstoryorganization.org

Thanks, and we look forward to hearing from you!

We are glad to be a part of The Hype and the Feedback, a U2 Academic Conference being held in Durham, NC from October 2-4, 2009.

Our director, Justin Edwards, has begun attending the American Film Institute in Hollywood, CA. WSO has much to gain from AFI’s connectivity with the film industry, as well as the curriculum and rigorous training experience from which to incorporate into WSO’s own development.

Justin Edwards, Director of WSO, presents a donation to the Kenya Film Commission.

WSO is proud to be a part of the first-ever Kalasha Film & Television Awards, Kenya’s version of the Oscars. The Awards will take place in May of 2009. Our donation will go towards making the event night happen, as well as sponsor individual awards going to future filmmakers of Kenya.

WSO has had a busy February, with a lot of work cut out for us this season!

We are currently hard at work in preparing course descriptions for Daystar University’s pending 4-year degree program in Film Production. Please feel free to peruse the proposal we prepared for them with the PDF link above.

We are also ironing out the details for our first production workshops, which will take place in Nairobi in April. We are partnering with Hot Sun Foundation to provide these workshops to new filmmakers from Kibera, Kenya’s largest slum.

Lastly, the first-ever Kenya Film & Television Awards are at the end of March, and we are in discussions with the Kenya Film Commission to play a part. What this entails remains to be seen, but we have offered our services, creative and otherwise, to be a part of this special night.

Click the link above to download a PDF of our updated Mission Statement packet (9 pages). It is complete with our vision, methodology, sample curriculum, sample budget, history, and more as of March 1, 2009.

Click the link above to download a PDF of our report on the Kenyan film industry. Written in September of 2008, it provides a general overview of the current state of the industry and suggests what steps it might take to further its development.

In short, it all begins with education.

About a year ago this month, Justin Edwards, WSO’s Founder and Director, began synthesizing ideas for what would eventually become the World Story Organization.

By March of 2008 it became clear that establishing WSO as a non-profit, educational organization was the way to proceed. WSO filed for tax-exempt status in April, with Edwards moving to Kenya in hopes of tapping into the budding film industry in East Africa.

WSO’s goal for the calendar year was to find interested parties in Kenya that would be willing to partner with WSO in bringing film production and storytelling education to prospective students.

We have proudly established contacts within Daystar University, the Kenya Film Commission, and Hot Sun Foundation, with plans for collaboration in the near future. We hope to hold formal screenwriting and production workshops in the spring of 2009.

It is WSO’s hope that these workshops will serve as pilot courses for further implementation of the curriculum we have been developing specifically for Kenyan film students.

To begin the new year, WSO will be meeting with a film professor from the University of Southern California who has been working with the Hot Sun Foundation in Kibera. We hope to discuss curriculum building techniques and the viability of starting a film school in the Kibera slums with the Hot Sun Foundation.

We hope your year wraps up well, and we look forward to continued success in 2009!

This week WSO attended a showcase of the Hot Sun Foundation short films in Nairobi. The work that they do in Kibera (Kenya’s largest slum) is inspiring.

HSF is dedicated to social transformation through media and art. They provide education and training opportunities in video production to aspiring artists in Kibera.

They are currently in the pre-production stages for the first-ever Kenyan-made feature length film to be produced in Kibera, based on the short, Kibera Kid.

WSO plans to soon tour their offices and witness the work they do first hand, and to perhaps collaborate on some training workshops in the spring.

We are excited to be in talks with Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya, to support them in their efforts to launch a Film Production bachelor’s degree program, the first of its kind in Kenya!

We will be meeting with the Dean of Arts next month to discuss curriculum building and faculty training opportunities for WSO.

Stay tuned for further details on this exciting collaboration!