On Archive Films at One World Romania
The 11th edition of the One World Romania International Human Rights and Documentary Film Festival takes place in Bucharest between March 16th and 25th. The films selected for the this edition are divided into several themed sections, and they will be part of traditional screenings, followed by Q&As, but also be featured in side events organized in different formats. This edition’s focal points are dedicated to subjects and areas which have recently started lengthy debates in our society, likeadapting education to the 21st century standards, the political assault over justice, the revival of racism, white supremacy and illiberalism all over the world, the reformulation the policies regarding the LGBTQ community or the treatment given by European countries to refugees.
This edition of theOne World Romania Festivalincludes a category called„Memory in Motion”, which appeared to complete our attempts to bring light upon some historical events, in order to reveal things about the present. Including this category in such a consistent form has its origins in the constant preoccupation of the One World Romania Association for recovering the documentary heritage of the former production studio „AlexandruSahia”.
Bill Morrison & Peter Forgacs - guests of One World Romania 2018
The most recent films of the famous filmmakersBill MorrisonandPeter Forgacs, experts in creatively using audiovisual archive footage, will have the Romanian premiere in One World Romania. In„Dawson City: Frozen Time”a film archive discovered in 1978 buried in the land of the small Canadian town of Dawson City is the pretext for director Bill Morrison to uncover several historic events. The film's soundtrack is composed by Alex Somers. The latest episode of the series "Private Hungary", dedicated by Peter Forgacs to the 20th century Hungary,"Picturesque Epochs"captures the details of painter Maria Ganoczy, always preoccupied by how to reflect the history of the century she passed through in her work.
The two directors –Bill Morrison & Peter Forgacs– will be in Bucharest during the festival and onSunday, March 18ththey will take part in a special event organised in Rezidenta BRD Scena9, in addition to the film screenings in the "Memory in Motion" category. Another guest of the event isDana Bunescu, editor of films like "Nicolae Ceausescu's Autobiography" (directed by Andrei Ujica) and "Dead Nation" (directed by Radu Jude). Another important debate is dedicated to the situation of the film archives in the ex-Communist Block, reuniting important guests, such asOksana Sarkisova(Blinken Open Society Archives, CEU - Budapesta),Stefanie Eckert(DEFA Foundation) andMichael Loebenstein(general secretary of the International Federation of Film Archives, director of the Film Museum - Viena). Next to them will beMihaiFulger, director of the Romanian National Film Archive.
During the same event theCineActiv Association of Proffesionals in Cinematographywill launch a campaign promoting the importance of audio-visual archives for the good of the collective cultural and socio-political history consciousness. At the event, we will publicly screen short editor films making use of archive images, produced especially for the campaign by filmmakersMonica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Cristina Haneș, Nora Agapi, AndraPopescu, AlinaManolache, DragoșHanciuandRadu Jude.
COMPLETE SCHEDULE OF THE EVENT
Rezidența BRD Scena9 | Sunday, March 18th | 13:00 – 18:00 | Free admission.
13.00: Launch of the campaign of CineActiv Association for Proffesionals in Cinematography.
14.00: Playing with Archives, with filmmakers Bill Morrison, Peter Forgacs and Dana Bunescu.
16.00: Film Archives of the Former Communist Block, with Oksana Sarkisova, Stefanie Eckert, Michael Loebenstein and MihaiFulger.
Focus Jonas Mekas
On the same topic of archive memory, another special programme at One World Romania 2018 is theFocusdedicated to filmmakerJonas Mekas.His filmed diaries are praising life, with its happy moments along with the sad, giving as much attention to geniuses and no-names who happen to cross his path, alike. While waiting for a full retrospective of this filmmaker's work, at OWR11 we propose two of his most surprising - and lengthy - films:"As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty"and"Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR".
The two documentaries by Jonas Mekas will be screenedMarch 20th and 21st,starting with18:00at theNational Contemporary Art Museum. There will be no tickets sold in advance for these screenings. Access will be allowed within the available places, only with the MNAC entrance ticket, which can be bought from the Museum's box office.
Sahia Shorts at One World Romania
As we have for the past years, in 2018 we have a new programme dedicated to the documentaries produced by the "AlexandruSahia" Studio.Sahia Pick & Mixconsistsof six films which go beyond the standard themes associated with the communist era, instead inspiring us to consider features such as documentary observation and portraiture, on-camera performance, and the management of the unexpected.
OnThursday, March 22ndwe will launch the fourth DVD in the series"Sahia Vintage", entitled"Documentary and Political Orders". The selection describes the spectrum of the different positions of the Sahia films in regard to the political commission, from the basic propaganda film to the art documentaries and the passing production of the studio. At the DVD Launch event we will screen three of the films included and we will talk toAdina Bradeanu, project coordinator, about the diversity of the Sahia productions and about the numerous ways of those years' filmmakers addressing the subjects.