In Mostar we worked at the OKC Abracevic Youth Center. This facility had been a community center for over 80 years, but it was destroyed during the war. After the war it was reclaimed by a group of activists who recently were awarded the legal ownership of the compound. The center itself consists of about three buildings, two of which are in ruins. There are about 15 containers on the rooftop and stacked around the property that have been turned into offices, a radio station, and other work spaces. For five days two of the containers were turned into the MY HERO / GLOBAL EXCHANGE production offices/editing suite.

The OKC Abrasevic Youth Center is located (physically and philosophically) in the buffer zone that divides the city. OKC Abrasevic promotes an Ethical Code of conduct "encouraging dialogue between the various ethnic and religious groups in Mostar to heal the current state of intolerance and social segregation."

Timur, our Site Administrator in Bosnia & Herzegovina, thought Mostar would be a great place to hold our workshops. If anyone needs to build bridges, the citizens of Mostar are clearly the ones. Symbolically, the Stari Most, a bridge in Mostar considered to be one of the oldest in Europe, was destroyed during the war, and then rebuilt in 2000 by Unesco. Though the Stari Most is back and better than ever, other psychological bridges remain in dire need of repair.

The participants in the MY HERO / GLOBAL EXCHANGE Workshops in Mostar were mostly artists, activists and students with some media training. Unlike our other Site Administrators, Timur's background is in media production, so he had line-produced three distinct projects prior to our arrival. One of the more successful projects produced during the workshops was about Valentina Mindoljevic, a physics teacher at the Gimnazija Mostar (Mostar High School). As a little girl Valentina dreamed of becoming an astronaut and teacher. Every year she and her students celebrate space exploration by having a science fair that includes a water-propelled rocket competition. Another movie was about Nedim Cisic, a local musician and OKC Abrasevic regular, who talked about the creative process. Nedim also lent his music to two of the other videos made in Mostar.

On our last night in Mostar we held a screening of the videos produced in Mostar, as well as several award-winning videos from the 2006 MY HERO Film Festival and the U.S. EXPRESS Anthology. Valentina and Nemic and the other people featured in the videos were present. After the show our friends in Mostar were clearly empowered by what they had achieved with their videos. The MY HERO / GLOBAL EXCHANGE team hopes to return to OKC Abrasevic to bring more support and equipment to this wonderful community youth center.

Valentina Mindoljevic (5:08 Minutes) Produced by Goran Tiro and Emina Kujundzic

Nedim Cisic (4:05 Minutes) Produced by Marija Kolobaric

Are There Any Heroes? (1:51 Minutes) Produced by Tadija Mandaric