Over March 15-24, Bucharest is hosting
\nthe 12th One World Romania Documentary and Human Rights Festival.
\nThis year the festival celebrates 30 years since the Romanian Revolution and
\nsince the fall of the Berlin Wall, as well as since the first free elections in
\nCzechoslovakia and Poland. The participating films deal with such themes as
\ntotalitarianism, post-socialism and transition to democracy. Some 80 films
\nselected for this year’s edition are divided into several thematic sections,
\ncomplementing the main theme. Films from all over the world dwell on issues such
\nas justice, refugees, migrants, non-traditional families, women’s rights, the
\nrights of disabled people or working conditions. <\/p>\n
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Also this year, the One World
\nRomania Documentary and Human Rights Festival has a retrospective section
\nfeaturing worldwide known cinema makers like the Australian Ruth Beckermann, the
\nIsraeli Avi Mograbi and the Palestinian Michel Khleifi. The three documentary
\nmakers will have discussions with the audience at the end of each screening,
\nfocusing on the themes of their films and their social and historical impact.
\nThe French film director Vanina Vignal, who had selected the films of the
\nfestival jointly with the Romanian critic Andrei Rus told us about the film
\nopening the festival:<\/p>\n
\n
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It
\nis a film by the Chinese director Wan Bing, actually his latest documentary, Dead
\nSouls , which lasts eight and a half hours. Wang Bing has made another film
\ndealing with the repression ordered by Mao Zedong in China in the 1950s, when
\nthose considered to be ‘rightists’, mainly youths and teachers, dubbed ‘intellectuals’,
\nwere thrown in jail. Most of them died in the re-education centres in the
\nGobi desert, which turned out to be real death camps. The film makes us recall
\nthe situation in Romania in the 1950s, after the instatement of the Stalinist
\nregime headed by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, who would send class enemies to work
\nat the Danube-Black Sea Canal. I’ve chosen this film to open the festival
\nthinking that, as a rule, opening films are rather low-key films meant to
\ndelight the audience and not the real film goers. So, thinking about my experience
\nas a spectator, I avoid such opening films. Also, I remember that at the screening
\nof one of my documentaries in France, a 90-year old peasant who hadn’t seen too
\nmany films in his life, told me he had been moved by my film and had understood
\nit perfectly. And then I realized people are very intelligent and it would be
\ntoo bad to underestimate them and not give them the opportunity to watch intelligent
\nfilms.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
11 documentary projects made in Romania in the past 2 years will
\nbe presented at the One World Romania Documentary and Human Rights Film
\nfestival. Adina Pintilie’s film ‘Touch Me Not’, which last year won the Berlin
\nFestival’s Golden Bear award, will be launched officially in Romanian film
\ntheatres as part of the One World Romania festival. The launch will be
\naccompanied by a series of special events related to this unconventional film,
\nwhich is set on the fluid border between reality and fiction, which invited
\nviewers to question their own preconceived ideas about intimacy, sexuality and the
\nhuman body. The festival will also occasion the screening of a fragment from
\nthe movie Andrei Ujic\u0103 is currently working on, entitled ‘Things We Said
\nToday’. Ujic\u0103’s project is a reenactment of the weekend of August 13th
\nto 15th in New York, when The Beatles gave their first concert on
\nShea Stadium, while Los Angeles was the stage for riots in the Watts
\nneighborhood. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This year’s edition of the festival also presents projects of
\ndebutant directors. One such director is Victor Bulat who came with the project
\n‘Our Home’, which tells the story of a family from Balti, the Republic of
\nMoldova. Victor Bulat:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
I started practicing by filming people in various
\ncontexts, because at the National University of Theater and Film we had such
\npractice as an assignment. This kind of filming we called ‘observational’.
\nThat’s how I came to film at home, because it came in handy, I did not risk
\nbeing rebuked by anyone who saw me carrying a camera. I filmed for 2 years, and
\nthis movie, on which I am still working, is made of materials that I shot
\nduring the 2016-2017 winter holiday. After watching the materials again, I
\nrealized I could make something out of them, so I started editing and looking
\nfor a structure. In this film, what I considered essential was the reaction of
\nthe family, so I asked them if they agreed to my sharing what I had filmed with
\nothers as well, to my sending to festivals what I had filmed. They agreed, but
\nkept asking me what was so interesting about their case. I have recently spoken
\nto my older sister who also features in the documentary. And she remembered how
\nshe was making fun of me when I was filming. Now she said she enjoyed seeing
\nthe movie, with all the moments I got on camera.<\/p>\n
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The events included in the festival will take place in 5 main
\nlocations: Elvira Popescu movie theater at the French Institute, Bucharest
\nCultural Centre ARCUB, Eforie movie theater, POINT and #Pavilion 32 at the
\nGoethe Institute in Bucharest. POINT will be the main location for the informal
\nmorning meetings with the filmmakers, the debates on the festival’s main theme,
\nand other workshops and screenings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over March 15-24, Bucharest is hosting the 12th One World Romania Documentary and Human Rights Festival<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":162427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-162426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n