Once again, the Open Air Foundation of Open Air Cinema is teaming up with nonprofits to help change the world through the medium of outdoor cinema. Stuart Farmer, the founder and owner of Open Air Cinema, has headed to Kenya to hand-deliver an OAC outdoor movie system that will be used with the nonprofit programs of Kampala 2 Cape Town. K2CT is providing community outdoor screenings using Open Air Cinema equipment of the 2010 World Cup in Gisenyi Rwanda, Kampala Uganda, Oyugis Kenya and Mongu Zambia. The live World Cup screenings provide an excellent opportunity for K2CT to gather local communities in Africa and provide them with educational experiences, all of which will further the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals of ending poverty and hunger, providing universal education to all, the promotion of gender equality and child and maternal health, the combat of HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability, and the development of a global partnership for development.

From the K2CT blog: “K2CT is a technology savvy group, we searched long and hard for a technical solution to screening matches. With Open Air Cinema and their amazing inflatable screen we have selected a partner to help bring the World Cup to rural communities in Africa. Our attraction to Open Air Cinema was that they are already realizing the potential for more than just World Cup screenings to educate and inspire many.”

The Open Air Foundation is thrilled to be a part of such a historic global event, and we’ll be keeping you posted on the screenings and activities as the World Cup 2010 commences. Only two more days left until World Cup 2010!

In a recent issue of the Italian magazine, D la Repubblica delle Donne, Open Air Cinema’s inflatable movie screens were featured in a special African spread. Open Air Cinema’s past work bringing outdoor movies to refugee camps in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda caught the magazine’s eye. As mentioned in the article, Open Air Cinema’s inflatable screens will be used in Rwanda’s Outdoor Film Festival, “Hillywood”. In rural regions of Africa, where a whole village shares one old TV, movies and Public Service media are rare. Open Air Cinema traveled to Africa to bring film entertainment and also educational media to these rural areas. You can read the blog post about Open Air Cinema’s outdoor movies in Africa here. The following is the article from the Italian magazine, D la Repubblica delle Donne.

Dopo i pop up store, i pop up cinema. La compagnia americana Open Air Cinema fornisce tutto l’occorrente nella formula dei “CineBox”: uno schermo gonfiabile da dodici metri, generatori, proiettori digitali, lettori dvd, altoparlanti e custodie per il trasporto. “E dal momento che possono essere installati ovunque, perché non cominciare dalle zone più remote dell’Africa, con l’aiuto delle Ong, per unire l’intrattenimento all’informazione su temi come l’Aids o i diritti delle donne”, ha pensato il presidente Stuart Farmer. “Già usati nei campi profughi di Kenya, Tanzania e Uganda, gli schermi gonfiabili saranno installati a giugno a “Hillywood”, il festival di cinema itinerante del Ruanda (openaircinema.us).

Photo of Outdoor Movies in Africa from Insert

After the pop up store, the movies pop up. The American company Open Air Cinema provides everything you need in the form of the  “CineBox”: an inflatable screen twelve meters in dimension, generators, digital projectors, DVD players, speakers and boxes for transport. “And since they can be installed anywhere, we can take them to the most remote areas of Africa, with the help of NGOs; joining entertainment with information on topics such as AIDS or the rights of women,” he thought President Stuart Farmer. “Already in use in the refugee camps of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, inflatable screens will be installed in June at “Hillywood”, the film festival touring Rwanda (openaircinema.us).

Source: “Life e Tendenze” by Stefania Medetti -D la Repubblica della Donne. Read full (Italian) article at: http://dweb.repubblica.it/dweb/2009/02/21/lifeetendenze/lifeetendenze/058lab63458.html.

Photo Credit: Dan Chung -The Guardian

Dusk was already falling as we – a team of Guardian and Amref staff – pulled up to the Apalamio trading centre in the Ojom parish of Katine. It was still busy with people buying vegetables, bartering for goods and mending bikes. With us we had four films, a large bundle of wires and leads, a laptop, projector and screen and blind hope everything would come together on the night. Our idea was simple. Bring the Guardian’s films about Katine back home: outdoor movies in rural Uganda.

Our vision of creating an open-air cinema in the middle of a Ugandan village finally became reality last week when we screened to an audience of hundreds four of the films shot by Sara Nason for GuardianFilms about aspects of life in Katine.

Things weren’t perfect. The only speakers we had were ones that could fit in a suitcase, which left parts of the crowd straining to hear what was being said. The power supply was erratic. A crisis over a fused plug was averted by an enterprising local who simply screwed live wires into our plug-board with two small sticks, and when we finally got a picture, it was at times obscured by the slow procession of a colossal bug inching slowly across the screen.

But the roars of laughter from the crowd, the calls of approval of women during Nason’s short documentary about the perils of childbirth in Katine and the well-wishes of locals after the films had played ensured that this outdoor movie screening will be just the first of many.

Two nights later we showed the same films to an even larger crowd on the site of an old IDP camp in Tiriri, this time with hired speakers and the screen rigged up to one of our vehicles.

Over the coming months Amref plans to hold more open-air screenings of Katine films, and, hopefully, some of those shot by villagers, following training conducted last week, at different locations throughout the sub-county.

Source: “Four films and blind hope” by Annie Kelly -The Guardian. Read full article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2009/mar/06/cinema-screening-report.

In Africa, movies can be more than a night out; they can be a step up. Making and watching films can change lives and empower individuals with information and ideas.

Outdoor cinema is an ideal medium for people in many parts of Africa and is growing in its use.

To show a film, they don’t have to own the land or build a building-the screens can be set up in an open field.

A provider of large inflatable movie screens, Open Air Cinema is making it possible to provide this medium for NGOs and small business owners in Africa at a discounted rate.

With the inflatable screens, projectors, speakers, sound equipment and generators everything is completely transportable.

For example, in Rwanda, Open Air Cinema has partnered with the Rwanda Cinema Center which has a program to showcase the talent of the brilliant local filmmakers at several locations across the country.

Meanwhile, Open Air Cinema, the world leader in outdoor cinema equipment, is announcing a humanitarian effort that includes a subsidized program to provide Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and small business owners in Africa with its inflatable movie screens to show films in an outdoor environment.

The Open Air Cinema CineBox product comes equipped with everything needed to offer NGOs a portable, durable solution to distribute information, education and entertainment via outdoor movie screens.

The systems are simple enough to set up and use for small events with a few people, yet large enough to easily accommodate gatherings of several thousand people.

“With the infrastructure challenges that are common throughout Africa, we are offering NGOs an effective and enticing new medium to deliver critical information and needed entertainment,” said Stuart Farmer, president of Open Air Cinema.

“Our inflatable movie screens and systems can be made available anywhere, even in the bush, so NGOs can now deliver consistent messages-through training films about AIDS awareness or women’s rights or an entertaining movie to help elevate the morale of those in the audience.”

Inflatable movie screens from Open Air Cinema have been used by the United Nations and FilmAid in refugee camps in Kenya and Tanzania.

The screens are also used for “Hillywood,” the traveling Rwandan film festival. Movies featuring filmmakers from Rwanda and other African states are shown on the inflatable screens in seven locations over seven days.

Up to 10,000 people attend each showing. Each community has the opportunity to feature their own stories, in their own voice.

“We take our film festival to remote areas of Rwanda to bring the magic of cinema to a people who desperately need it,” said Eric Kabera, founder of the Rwanda Cinema Center.

“Many people in this region have never seen a film, and we are working to educate and inspire them and open their eyes to the world of achievable possibilities.”

“Outdoor cinema is an ideal medium for many parts of Africa,” Farmer said.

“To show a film, you don’t have to own the land, it can be in an open field.

“Everything can fit in a Land Rover including the screen, projector, speakers, a sound mixer and a generator for remote outdoor viewing.”

The Open Air Cinema subsidized program is for use by NGOs and other organizations that desire to use the cinema equipment for humanitarian efforts in Africa.

The program includes detailed training, technical support and reduced pricing for participating organizations.

To apply for the program and for more information, visit www.openaircinema.us/humanitarian.htm

In a special open air cinema at Kawempe, Kampala, hundreds of people saw a lively mix of music, outdoor movies, acrobats, rappers, slam poetry and short and feature films, while veejays offered live translation of a Kenyan feature film, Help, into one of the local languages, Lugandan.

The video halls programme, which reached some 20 venues around Kampala between 19 and 23 November, has been put together by the Amakula Kampala Cultural Foundation and the Commonwealth Foundation as part of the culture programme of the Commonwealth People’s Forum. Viewers saw outdoor movies from Cameroon, Kenya, Pakistan and South Africa, all translated into Lugandan.

The week before the video halls programme, a mobile cinema toured out of Kampala, reaching Jinja, Iganga, Tororo, Mbale, Soroti and Lira between 8 and 14 November. Amakula also presented a daily cinema programme as part of the People’s Space from Monday 19 to Friday 23 November. In the People’s Space films from Africa and further afield were used to trigger discussions about key development issues, such as fair trade and women’s rights, led by civil society participants in the Commonwealth People’s Forum.

Video halls are a uniquely Ugandan phenomenon: cheap, accessible places where communities gather to watch films on video. Outdoor venues are becoming even more common due to the great availability of space, and outdoor movies are now very popular. Veejays – video jockeys – provide live simultaneous translation of the videos from English to local languages. Competition between veejays is fierce and the top ones attract huge followings.

Andrew Firmin, the Commonwealth Foundation’s Head of Culture and Diversity said, “This activity is taking the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to the people and highlighting a special aspect of Ugandan culture. Films are a great way of gaining glimpses into other cultures and ways of life, and they’re a big part of the cultural programme of the Commonwealth People’s Forum. We’re delighted to be working with Amakula in this programme.”

Film-making training

Participants at the 2007 Commonwealth People’s Forum were treated to the fruits of an innovative film-making training scheme that took place during the weeklong summit.

The Maisha Film Lab, a Ugandan NGO, run a training course for new film-makers. They received instruction, and were mentored and coached on aspects of film-making technique such as screen-writing, directing, cinematography, sound recording and editing.

By the end of the five day training course, they made three short films on the themes of the Forum, Realising People’s Potential, and were shown as part of the closing ceremony on Thursday 22 November. They were shown again in the film tent of the People’s Space, an open access area of the Forum, on Friday 23 November as part of the Amakula film programme.

The films addressed key development issues: women’s human rights, the status of the girl child and access to water in rural communities, using a mix of drama and documentary methods.

Commonwealth Foundation Head of Culture and Diversity Andrew Firmin commented, “This is an excellent training initiative for East African and South Asian film-makers, and it’s been great to make the connection with the Forum. The films show how a connection can be made between creative expression and hard-edged development issues.”

The programme was supported by a grant from the Commonwealth Foundation.

What is filmanthropy?

It’s helping kids from the Bronx, Los Angeles and the Dominican Republic land jobs in the movie industry.

It’s preserving and restoring films.

It’s showing classic movies to thousands of people living in Macedonian refugee camps.

Here’s how Caroline Baron, Vin Diesel, David O. Russell, Martin Scorsese and Jon Turteltaub practice filmanthropy.

David O. Russell: Ghetto Film School

“Why shouldn’t we help kids in poor urban areas of New York make films? Let’s see their films,” David O. Russell says. “The school is like the High School for the Performing Arts, but it’s for cinema. The goal is to build a magnet school. Right now, it’s this after-school program in the Bronx that’s spreading to public schools in other boroughs.”

Russell serves as a fund-raiser and educator, and has tag-teamed filmmaker friends like Spike Jonze and Gavin O’Connor to lend support to the school, which was founded in 2000.

In the workshops, he takes pitches from 30 kids. Then they get his feedback.

“I say things like, ‘I think this is cool. This is smart. That’s funny. I think this part could be better,’ ” says Russell. “Some of the films are fantastical. Some of them are really funny. Some are really gritty and urban, but by no means are they just stereotypically from the streets. One kid made a really funny movie using a stuffed squirrel that was terrorizing a house. It was this really simple kind of filmmaking that I could do with my own kids.”

Martin Scorsese: Film Foundation

Sometime in the late 1980s, Martin Scorsese learned that more than 75% of silent films had either deteriorated or disappeared completely. “It was even more disturbing to realize that 50% of all films made in America before 1950, sound and silent, were gone.”

So, in 1990, Scorsese gathered together his friends Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Francis Coppola, Woody Allen, Robert Redford, Stanley Kubrick and Sydney Pollack and started the Film Foundation. “We were able to get the archivists into the front offices of the studios and begin a program of systematic restoration of all the major titles in the vaults.”

In addition to film preservation, the foundation offers educational programs that teach students how to interpret the language of film.

“And because visual language today is so important — much more than ever — it’s essential for them to understand how to express themselves using the grammar of film as opposed to the grammar of advertising, which is something very different, made with a very different purpose,” Scorsese says.

He draws on the sci-fi classic “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

“Why does it seem so immediate when it was made 57 years ago?” he asks. “You can start by examining the writing, the acting, the lighting, the framing, the use of music. And then the political context of 1950-51, when that film was made: You can learn a great deal about the history of America at that point, and understand how what’s going on outside the movie can inform the action, the story choices, the emphases. And it gives you a way of looking at our own period, the one we’re in right now, seeing the similarities and the differences.”

Caroline Baron: FilmAid International

Nine years ago, “Capote” producer Caroline Baron heard a report about one of the refugee camps in Macedonia. The big problems: idleness, fear, trauma and boredom.

Baron thought she could help: She would show films to create a diversion, an escape.

“Imagine that you have just survived walking thousands of miles, your life at risk every minute of that time. You manage to get to a refugee camp and you have nothing to do. You don’t know what your future holds,” Baron says. “Would it be crazy to bring screenings into refugee camps?”

Six weeks later, Baron, with one screen, one projector and three crews, was on her way.

“We had an audience of tens of thousands of people watching Charlie Chaplin films and ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ” Baron recalls. “But in addition to feeding their imaginations, we realized that they needed information on land-mine awareness. So we showed this PSA on land mines.”

Baron sees the screen as a tool — a communicator. “When you’ve got 70, 90 or 100,000 people in a refugee camp, there is no Internet, no phone no BlackBerry to communicate. But a big movie screen does communicate. It’s very old-fashioned but very effective.”

Vin Diesel: One Race Global Film Foundation

Four years ago, Vin Diesel met with Dominican Republic president Leonel Fernandez.

“He wanted me to bring the film industry there,” Diesel says. “The president and I came up with this four-week summer course where we pull 32 kids from these impoverished neighborhoods and give them the education and tools to become filmmakers.”

The foundation, now in its third year, has achieved real success — so much so that when the “Fast & Furious” crew recently flew to the Dominican Republic to shoot there, they were able to employ 10 former students.

“It was like a dream come true,” says Diesel.

Jon Turteltaub: Inner-City Filmmakers

“What’s great about this program is that you don’t have just a group of kids all of whom want to become directors,” Jon Turteltaub says of ICF, which provides free year-round professional training to inner-city students. “These students want to work in the wardrobe department, the camera department, the editorial department as well as wanting to write and direct.”

The program seeks out students with obvious potential. “One young woman’s first gig was in the wardrobe department on ‘National Treasure,’ ” Turteltaub says. “Now she’s in the union. She’s now a costumer, and the only reason she’s there is because people want her. This is a career and a life she has — something she’s good at, something she worked hard to learn.”

Jenny Caceres

The moviemaking business has never been an easy one to get into even for someone who has lived in the heart of it her whole life.

“Before I got started in the Inner City Filmmakers program, my confidence was low, and I was a very quiet person,” says Jenny Caceres, 21. Born in Honduras and raised in Southern California, Caceres says she never really had a “successful role model” to motivate her to follow her dreams. Thanks to ICF, she became a post-production assistant on Tina Fey’s “Baby Mamma.”

“This program has opened so many doors and led me to so many opportunities I wouldn’t have heard of without it,” Caceres says. “They called (the program) a film family, and that’s what it feels like to me.”

Alma Osorio and George Velez

Two teenagers from the Bronx recently visited Africa and got to make a movie, too.

As participants in the Ghetto Film School Program, Alma Osorio and George Velez, both 16, were given the opportunity to shoot a film in Uganda as part of their final thesis project.

“I view film differently now because of the program,” Osorio says. “I view film as a form of art now, which I couldn’t say I did prior to this program.”

Adds Velez: “Since joining this program, I now know what it’s like to write a script, make storyboards and various other things to make your film better. My concept was to write a movie and shoot it, and they have given me the fundamentals that I can use on future filmmaking projects.”

Both students will enter their junior year of high school this year.

– Justin Kroll

This is the first installment in a series of posts by Open Air Cinema Technician Jay Johnson. Jay is presently in Northern Uganda where he has joined the makers of the Academy Award nominated documentary ‘War/Dance’ on their first return to the refugee camp where the documentary was filmed. Jay will assist the team in screening War/Dance on an Open Air Cinema Elite System in the remote refugee camp of Patongo.

We are traveling way too fast on a dirt road heading north. For purposes of safety, we are grouped in a convoy of four Toyota Landcruisers and we’ve just managed to escape the city. For at least an hour now I have been bouncing around in the back seat. Everything rattles. Not only are we dealing with hundreds of potholes the size of kettle drums, but also an endless array of speed bumps. I have counted over 74 in the last one-mile stretch.

I am traveling with an American film crew to the war-zones of Northern Uganda to screen a documentary film to thousands of refugees. Somewhere between here and the Sudan is a truck full of equipment imported from the United States: a 25 foot inflatable movie screen, a mixing board, two DVD decks and hundreds of feet of tightly coiled power cords. The projector I hold tightly on my lap, hoping that somehow my bones will absorb any shock that might damage the fragile bulb. But its useless really.

We are scheduled to reach a refugee camp in Northern Uganda in about 8 hours, so with nothing else to do, I look back on the events that brought me here. About 4 weeks ago I happened upon a documentary called ‘War/Dance’ about a group of school children practicing for a dance competition in a refugee camp in Northern Uganda. I can honestly say that this was one of the most powerful documentaries I had ever seen. The difficult yet powerful stories were told without exaggeration and the imagery was spectacular. I had no idea that in 3 weeks I would be sitting with those children in that camp watching that documentary on an Open Air Cinema movie screen.

Our convoy finally reaches the camp, and I am feeling unbelievably beat. The sun is setting just behind the fields, and the clouds roll along the red horizon. I have seen War Dance a few times by now, so I instantly recognize the surroundings. Patong Primary School is just as it had appeared in the film: dirty yellow buildings set in the middle of the bush. Next to the school is a large football field full of dry grass and two shade trees. Under the trees I notice a large circle of school children, some banging drums as they spin, and others stomping barefoot in the red dirt. They are singing folk songs as loudly as they can.

Patongo Children Caught in the Headlights

I took a few pictures of those first few moments in the camp. The children are dancing in the beams of light coming from our Land Cruiser. Its dark out here, so their figures are all twisted into strange shapes.

Day Two

I didn’t sleep much last night. A wooden slat under the mattress of my bed was broken and I was slipping through it most of the night. Then sometime around 3am the frame holding up my mosquito net came crashing down on top of me. Of course there was no electricity and no lights so I couldn’t exactly get up to sort things out. I just threw the netting to the side and tried my best to ignore all the malarial mosquitos biting the soles of my feet.

By daybreak I am already out walking the dirt paths of Patongo, snapping photos of beetles, and stray dogs and these two little antelope-like creatures as they struggle to hop through the camp. They had been tied together at the legs, so every leap was cut short by a rope.

By about 8am I am outside in the parking lot sorting through the trucks to find the equipment we will need for this afternoon’s private screening of War Dance at the school. After a whole lot of wire-stripping and duct-taping, I finally have the JBL Eon speakers hooked up to a generator and a mixer board. We lift the whole rig into the back of one of the Toyotas, lash it down with florescent webbing, and send it off through the camp blasting a radio spot for tomorrow’s screening. We are hoping the majority of the 10,000 some odd people still living in the camp will join us tomorrow night on the football field, underneath the two trees where the movie screen will be inflated.

My mosquito net is working fine tonight, but I still can’t sleep. I’m kept awake by the buzzing in my own head. The circumstances I find myself in at the moment have finally overwhelmed me. Here I am, in a refugee camp surrounded by the images I had seen on my own TV just three weeks previous. I admit that when I first watched War Dance I became emotional enough that I even cried a few drops. By now I have met the three children who told their stories in the film. I don’t really feel it is my place to tell their stories here, but let me just say that they have all been through things as very young children that just do not seem at all possible. As they told their stories in the film I was definitely rattled, but to be here where all those things really happened leaves me feeling restless.

Day Three

I ordered one omelet at the restaurant across the street, but for some reason the waitress has brought me three. Its going to be a long day, so why not? I have made a checklist of things that need to be squared away before we go to the football field and set up the equipment. All the gear I will use today has been in Kenya for over a year. Its a system that we donated to an organization called Film Aid, and they have been using it to screen educational films in refugee camps in the area. It was shipped here overland in a truck, and its only a guess as to the condition it is in. So, the first task this morning is to unpack it all, inspect it, clean it, and test it. Fortunately, I have a few friends on the team who have always been ready to help out, namely Steve from the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) in Kampala and Charles from the Film Aid office in Nairobi.

To be continued…

Outdoor movies and inflatable movie screens have been appearing in locations all around the world. Over time we will be adding links to articles about outdoor movies and open air cinema events. These articles are listed according to the country where the inflatable movie screen has been set up or the country where the outdoor movie event takes place.

A

• Abkhazia – Republic of Abkhazia
• Afghanistan – Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
• Akrotiri and Dhekelia – Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (UK overseas territory)
• Åland – Åland Islands (Autonomous province of Finland)
• Albania – Republic of Albania
• Algeria – People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
• American Samoa – Territory of American Samoa (US territory)
• Andorra – Principality of Andorra
• Angola – Republic of Angola
• Anguilla (UK overseas territory)
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Argentina – Argentine Republic
• Armenia – Republic of Armenia
• Aruba (Self-governing country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
• Ascension Island (Dependency of the UK overseas territory of Saint Helena)
• Australia – Commonwealth of Australia
• Austria – Republic of Austria
• Azerbaijan – Republic of Azerbaijan

B

• Bahamas, The – Commonwealth of The Bahamas
• Bahrain – Kingdom of Bahrain
• Bangladesh – People’s Republic of Bangladesh
• Barbados
• Belarus – Republic of Belarus
• Belgium – Kingdom of Belgium
• Belize
• Benin – Republic of Benin
• Bermuda (UK overseas territory)
• Bhutan – Kingdom of Bhutan
• Bolivia – Republic of Bolivia
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Botswana – Republic of Botswana
• Brazil – Federative Republic of Brazil
• Brunei – Negara Brunei Darussalam
• Bulgaria – Republic of Bulgaria
• Burkina Faso
• Burma – Union of Myanmar
• Burundi – Republic of Burundi

C

• Cambodia – Kingdom of Cambodia
• Cameroon – Republic of Cameroon
• Canada
• Cape Verde – Republic of Cape Verde
• Cayman Islands (UK overseas territory)
• Central African Republic
• Chad – Republic of Chad
• Chile – Republic of Chile
• China – People’s Republic of China
• For “China, Republic of”, see Taiwan
• Christmas Island – Territory of Christmas Island (Australian overseas territory)
• Cocos (Keeling) Islands – Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australian overseas territory)
• Colombia – Republic of Colombia
• Comoros – Union of the Comoros
• Congo – Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Congo – Republic of the Congo
• Cook Islands (Associated state of New Zealand)
• Costa Rica – Republic of Costa Rica
• Côte d’Ivoire – Republic of Côte d’Ivoire
• Croatia – Republic of Croatia
• Cuba – Republic of Cuba
• Cyprus – Republic of Cyprus
• Czech Republic

D

• Denmark – Kingdom of Denmark
• For “Dhekelia”, see Akrotiri and Dhekelia
• Djibouti – Republic of Djibouti
• Dominica – Commonwealth of Dominica
• Dominican Republic

E

• East Timor – Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
• Ecuador – Republic of Ecuador
• Egypt – Arab Republic of Egypt
• El Salvador – Republic of El Salvador
• Equatorial Guinea – Republic of Equatorial Guinea
• Eritrea – State of Eritrea
• Estonia – Republic of Estonia
• Ethiopia – Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

F

• Falkland Islands (UK overseas territory)
• Faroe Islands (Self-governing country in the Kingdom of Denmark)
• Fiji – Republic of the Fiji Islands
• Finland – Republic of Finland
• France – French Republic
• French Polynesia (French overseas collectivity)

G

• Gabon – Gabonese Republic
• Gambia, The – Republic of The Gambia
• Georgia
• Germany – Federal Republic of Germany
• Ghana – Republic of Ghana
• Gibraltar (UK overseas territory)
• Greece – Hellenic Republic
• Greenland (Self-governing country in the Kingdom of Denmark)
• Grenada
• Guam – Territory of Guam (US organized territory)
• Guatemala – Republic of Guatemala
• Guernsey – Bailiwick of Guernsey (British Crown dependency)
• Guinea – Republic of Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau – Republic of Guinea-Bissau
• Guyana – Co-operative Republic of Guyana

H

• Haiti – Republic of Haiti
• Honduras – Republic of Honduras
• Hong Kong – Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (Area of special sovereignty)
• Hungary – Republic of Hungary

I

• Iceland – Republic of Iceland
• India – Republic of India
• Indonesia – Republic of Indonesia
• Iran – Islamic Republic of Iran
• Iraq – Republic of Iraq
• Ireland – Ireland
• Isle of Man (British Crown dependency)
• Israel – State of Israel
• Italy – Italian Republic
• For “Ivory Coast”, see Côte d’Ivoire

J

• Jamaica
• Japan
• Jersey – Bailiwick of Jersey (British Crown dependency)
• Jordan – Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

K

• Kazakhstan – Republic of Kazakhstan
• Kenya – Republic of Kenya
• Kiribati – Republic of Kiribati
• Korea, North – Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
• Korea, South – Republic of Korea
• Kosovo – Republic of Kosovo
• Kuwait – State of Kuwait
• Kyrgyzstan – Kyrgyz Republic

L

• Laos – Lao People’s Democratic Republic
• Latvia – Republic of Latvia
• Lebanon – Republic of Lebanon
• Lesotho – Kingdom of Lesotho
• Liberia – Republic of Liberia
• Libya – Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
• Liechtenstein – Principality of Liechtenstein
• Lithuania – Republic of Lithuania
• Luxembourg – Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

M

• Macao – Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (Area of special sovereignty)
• Macedonia – Republic of Macedonia
• Madagascar – Republic of Madagascar
• Malawi – Republic of Malawi
• Malaysia
• Maldives – Republic of Maldives
• Mali – Republic of Mali
• Malta – Republic of Malta
• Marshall Islands – Republic of the Marshall Islands
• Mauritania – Islamic Republic of Mauritania
• Mauritius – Republic of Mauritius
• Mayotte – Departmental Collectivity of Mayotte (French overseas collectivity)
• Mexico – United Mexican States
• Micronesia – Federated States of Micronesia
• Moldova – Republic of Moldova
• Monaco – Principality of Monaco
• Mongolia
• Montenegro
• Montserrat (UK overseas territory)
• Morocco – Kingdom of Morocco
• Mozambique – Republic of Mozambique
• For “Myanmar”, see Burma

N

• Nagorno-Karabakh – Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Artsakh)
• Namibia – Republic of Namibia
• Nauru – Republic of Nauru
• Nepal – Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal
• Netherlands – Kingdom of the Netherlands
• Netherlands Antilles (Self-governing country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
• New Caledonia – Territory of New Caledonia and Dependencies (French community sui generis)
• New Zealand
• Nicaragua – Republic of Nicaragua
• Niger – Republic of Niger
• Nigeria – Federal Republic of Nigeria
• Niue (Associated state of New Zealand)
• Norfolk Island – Territory of Norfolk Island (Australian overseas territory)
• Northern Cyprus – Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
• Northern Mariana Islands – Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (US commonwealth)
• For “North Korea”, see Korea, North
• Norway – Kingdom of Norway

O

• Oman – Sultanate of Oman

P

• Pakistan – Islamic Republic of Pakistan
• Palau – Republic of Palau
• Palestine – Palestinian Territories
• Panama – Republic of Panama
• Papua New Guinea – Independent State of Papua New Guinea
• Paraguay – Republic of Paraguay
• For “People’s Republic of China”, see China
• Peru – Republic of Peru
• Philippines – Republic of the Philippines
• Pitcairn Islands – Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno Islands (UK overseas territory)
• Poland – Republic of Poland
• Portugal – Portuguese Republic
• For “Pridnestrovie”, see Transnistria
• Puerto Rico – Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (US commonwealth)

Q

• Qatar – State of Qatar

R

• Romania
• Russia – Russian Federation
• Rwanda – Republic of Rwanda

S

• Saint Barthélemy – Collectivity of Saint Barthélemy (French overseas collectivity)
• Saint Helena (UK overseas territory)
• Saint Kitts and Nevis – Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Martin – Collectivity of Saint Martin (French overseas collectivity)
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon – Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (French overseas collectivity)
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Samoa – Independent State of Samoa
• San Marino – Most Serene Republic of San Marino
• São Tomé and Príncipe – Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe
• Saudi Arabia – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• Senegal – Republic of Senegal
• Serbia – Republic of Serbia
• Seychelles – Republic of Seychelles
• Sierra Leone – Republic of Sierra Leone
• Singapore – Republic of Singapore
• Slovakia – Slovak Republic
• Slovenia – Republic of Slovenia
• Solomon Islands
• Somalia – Somali Republic
• Somaliland – Republic of Somaliland
• South Africa – Republic of South Africa
• For “South Korea”, see Korea, South
• South Ossetia – Republic of South Ossetia
• Spain – Kingdom of Spain
• Sri Lanka – Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
• Sudan – Republic of the Sudan
• Suriname – Republic of Suriname
• Svalbard (Territory of Norway)
• Swaziland – Kingdom of Swaziland
• Sweden – Kingdom of Sweden
• Switzerland – Swiss Confederation
• Syria – Syrian Arab Republic

T

• Taiwan – Republic of China
• Tajikistan – Republic of Tajikistan
• Tanzania – United Republic of Tanzania
• Thailand – Kingdom of Thailand
• For “Timor-Leste”, see East Timor
• Togo – Togolese Republic
• Tokelau (Overseas territory of New Zealand)
• Tonga – Kingdom of Tonga
• Transnistria – Transnistrian Moldovan Republic
• Trinidad and Tobago – Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
• Tristan da Cunha (Dependency of the UK overseas territory of Saint Helena)
• Tunisia – Tunisian Republic
• Turkey – Republic of Turkey
• Turkmenistan
• Turks and Caicos Islands (UK overseas territory)
• Tuvalu

U

• Uganda – Republic of Uganda
• Ukraine
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom – United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• United States – United States of America
• Uruguay – Eastern Republic of Uruguay
• Uzbekistan – Republic of Uzbekistan

V

• Vanuatu – Republic of Vanuatu
• Vatican City – State of the Vatican City
• Venezuela – Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
• Vietnam – Socialist Republic of Vietnam
• Virgin Islands, British – British Virgin Islands (UK overseas territory)
• Virgin Islands, United States – United States Virgin Islands (US organized territory)

W

• Wallis and Futuna – Territory of Wallis and Futuna Islands (French overseas collectivity)
• Western Sahara – Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

Y

• Yemen – Republic of Yemen

Z

• For “Zaire”, see Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Zambia – Republic of Zambia
• Zimbabwe – Republic of Zimbabwe