One World Romania Documentary and Human Rights Festival

one world romania documentary and human rights festival Over March 15-24, Bucharest is hosting the 12th One World Romania Documentary and Human Rights Festival

Over March 15-24, Bucharest is hosting the 12th One World Romania Documentary and Human Rights Festival. This year the festival celebrates 30 years since the Romanian Revolution and since the fall of the Berlin Wall, as well as since the first free elections in Czechoslovakia and Poland. The participating films deal with such themes as totalitarianism, post-socialism and transition to democracy. Some 80 films selected for this year's edition are divided into several thematic sections, complementing the main theme. Films from all over the world dwell on issues such as justice, refugees, migrants, "non-traditional" families, women's rights, the rights of disabled people or working conditions. 


Also this year, the One World Romania Documentary and Human Rights Festival has a retrospective section featuring worldwide known cinema makers like the Australian Ruth Beckermann, the Israeli Avi Mograbi and the Palestinian Michel Khleifi. The three documentary makers will have discussions with the audience at the end of each screening, focusing on the themes of their films and their social and historical impact. The French film director Vanina Vignal, who had selected the films of the festival jointly with the Romanian critic Andrei Rus told us about the film opening the festival:


"It is a film by the Chinese director Wan Bing, actually his latest documentary, "Dead Souls" , which lasts eight and a half hours. Wang Bing has made another film dealing with the repression ordered by Mao Zedong in China in the 1950s, when those considered to be 'rightists', mainly youths and teachers, dubbed 'intellectuals', were thrown in jail. Most of them died in the "re-education" centres in the Gobi desert, which turned out to be real death camps. The film makes us recall the situation in Romania in the 1950s, after the instatement of the Stalinist regime headed by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, who would send class enemies to work at the Danube-Black Sea Canal. I've chosen this film to open the festival thinking that, as a rule, opening films are rather low-key films meant to delight the audience and not the real film goers. So, thinking about my experience as a spectator, I avoid such opening films. Also, I remember that at the screening of one of my documentaries in France, a 90-year old peasant who hadn't seen too many films in his life, told me he had been moved by my film and had understood it perfectly. And then I realized people are very intelligent and it would be too bad to underestimate them and not give them the opportunity to watch intelligent films."


11 documentary projects made in Romania in the past 2 years will be presented at the One World Romania Documentary and Human Rights Film festival. Adina Pintilie's film 'Touch Me Not', which last year won the Berlin Festival's Golden Bear award, will be launched officially in Romanian film theatres as part of the One World Romania festival. The launch will be accompanied by a series of special events related to this unconventional film, which is set on the fluid border between reality and fiction, which invited viewers to question their own preconceived ideas about intimacy, sexuality and the human body. The festival will also occasion the screening of a fragment from the movie Andrei Ujică is currently working on, entitled 'Things We Said Today'. Ujică's project is a reenactment of the weekend of August 13th to 15th in New York, when The Beatles gave their first concert on Shea Stadium, while Los Angeles was the stage for riots in the Watts neighborhood. 


This year's edition of the festival also presents projects of debutant directors. One such director is Victor Bulat who came with the project 'Our Home', which tells the story of a family from Balti, the Republic of Moldova. Victor Bulat:

"I started practicing by filming people in various contexts, because at the National University of Theater and Film we had such practice as an assignment. This kind of filming we called 'observational'. That's how I came to film at home, because it came in handy, I did not risk being rebuked by anyone who saw me carrying a camera. I filmed for 2 years, and this movie, on which I am still working, is made of materials that I shot during the 2016-2017 winter holiday. After watching the materials again, I realized I could make something out of them, so I started editing and looking for a structure. In this film, what I considered essential was the reaction of the family, so I asked them if they agreed to my sharing what I had filmed with others as well, to my sending to festivals what I had filmed. They agreed, but kept asking me what was so interesting about their case. I have recently spoken to my older sister who also features in the documentary. And she remembered how she was making fun of me when I was filming. Now she said she enjoyed seeing the movie, with all the moments I got on camera."


The events included in the festival will take place in 5 main locations: Elvira Popescu movie theater at the French Institute, Bucharest Cultural Centre ARCUB, Eforie movie theater, POINT and #Pavilion 32 at the Goethe Institute in Bucharest. POINT will be the main location for the informal morning meetings with the filmmakers, the debates on the festival's main theme, and other workshops and screenings.



www.rri.ro
Publicat: 2019-03-23 14:06:00
Vizualizari: 4281
TiparesteTipareste