Projects by young participants from all over the world — from Mexico to the Netherlands–were presented in the Hermitage Theater on April 14 and 15. The films tell the stories of ordinary people, their way to success. It confirmed the trend that was discussed on the forum: personal stories are becoming more and more interesting to the audience.

Nikita Belorusov presented his project at the forum. He produced a documentary movie "#Home" about the terrorist attack in the St. Petersburg subway in 2017. Its characters are ordinary citizens who were ready to help their neighbors at any time.

"Kandise" is one such film. It is a story about a 13-year-old girl from The Hague (Netherlands). She is a DJ, who is already well-known and performs at festivals despite her injuries after an accident. Kandise feels pain, but the girl does not give up and says that she will fight.

Another story - the film "All cats are grey in the dark" by the Swiss director Lasse Linder. This masterpiece about a man and his beloved pets has already received the European Film Academy prize and won eight international film festivals.

Among the other documentary stories — BenGarfield's film "War and Cheese" about an ex-IT master, who is now producing Russian parmesan; a TV-spot about graffiti and street art in Chelyabinsk, a fiction story about a pilot who left for North Ossetia and now raises yaks in the mountains.

One of the heroines of the film "St. Petersburg, the city of applause" by the Spanish journalist Ricardo Marquina, who has been participating in the "Dialogue of Cultures" for several years now, is the theater and film actress Elizaveta Boyarskaya.

These films are cross-border projects created by international teams of documentary filmmakers.

The forum featured not only documentary films but also many creative reportage pictures. A good example is Artur Ishpulatov's "Art of the streets". This story fully showed to the audience all sides and aspects of street art at the "Culture Code" festival in Chelyabinsk

Inna Makieva's special reportage "Pilot, yaks and Dunta" was also shown on the big screen to the participants and guests of the forum. It is dedicated to Dunta, one of the most beautiful villages in North Ossetia at an altitude of almost 2000 meters above sea level, where only 30 people live. One of them is Alan Baysangurov, a former pilot who breeds yaks, farms and enjoys his native nature.

Let us remind you that the XV International Media Forum brought together not only journalists but also filmmakers, documentary filmmakers, photographers and bloggers.

The works were presented using a hybrid format: some speakers performed at the Hermitage Theater, others connected via ZOOM.