A CGE Culture Goes Europe & Soft Skills for Democracy (SK4D) Collaboration
As part of the Soft Skills for Democracy (SK4D) project, CGE Erfurt e.V. cooperated with Plurals, a student-led initiative at the University of Erfurt, to host a documentary movie night on 15th of January 2025. The event took place in a university lecture hall from 18:00 to 20:00 and brought together more than 30 students and community members for an evening of shared learning, reflection, and dialogue.
The collaboration combined CGE’s experience in civic education and democratic learning with Plurals’ strong connection to the student community. Together, the partners created a safe and open space within the university to engage with difficult social realities through culture and film.
The documentary This Is Love tells a powerful and deeply personal story from Nigeria, focusing on the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals facing systemic discrimination, social exclusion, and violence. Despite living in the 21st century, LGBTQ+ people in Nigeria continue to endure fear and marginalization driven by legal restrictions, family pressure, cultural norms, and social stigma.
Through real voices and personal testimonies, the film highlights how families and communities often push LGBTQ+ individuals to the margins of society. It sheds light on the emotional and psychological toll of this exclusion, while also portraying resilience, courage, and the search for dignity under extremely challenging circumstances.
The filmmaker took significant personal and professional risks to document these stories. By doing so, the documentary gives visibility to voices that are frequently silenced and invites audiences to reflect on human rights, freedom, and the values that underpin democratic societies.
Within the framework of Soft Skills for Democracy, the movie night was designed as more than a film screening. It served as an educational format to foster empathy, critical thinking, intercultural understanding, and respectful dialogue key soft skills for democratic participation and social cohesion.
The emotionally engaging atmosphere encouraged participants to reflect on global human rights issues and on their relevance in local and European contexts. Many attendees described the film as eye-opening and challenging, inviting them to reconsider assumptions about identity, belonging, and sense of freedom.
The project SoftSkills4Democracy (Pr. nr. 2024-1-DE04-KA154-YOU-000234648) is funded by the Erasmus+ foundation.#
