Real Fictions
April 2004 - February 2005

The project constituted a collaboration between D Media and teenagers (between 15-19 years old) from Cluj for producing 4 short videos on different themes:
1. Romanian nationalism, focusing on ethnic prejudices in Transylvania and forms of discrimination stemming from them.
2. Contemporary art in Romania - a questionaire was prepared for artists and art institutions with questions like: what is an artist, how do artists live, is being an artist a profession;
3. Open source and free software not just as software but as a way of life;
4. A video on a theme chosen by the volunteers - the selected theme was the invasion of the public space of Cluj by tricolor symbols.

Stemming from the general apathy of young people in Romania for their social surroundings, the idea behind Real Fictions was to involve teenagers, who are usually only consumers of media, in a process of production. 8 volunteers from different high-schools in Cluj participated in the project, working in 3 different teams, each team being coordinated by a member of D Media. The teams worked separately from May-December 2004 to realize the following 4 videos:

1. Folklore. 32 min, 2004.
Short documentary focusing on present day nationalism in Romania and its continuing ties to the Ceausescu regime. The video is composed of interviews with philosophers, teachers, artists and musicians from Cluj and Budapest, which are mixed with archival materials. Coordonator: Joanne RIchardson. Editor: Diana Balog Volunteers: Eniko Nagy & Gabriela Torcatoru.

2. Paint Romanian . 11 min, 2004.
A fotofilm composed of hundreds of photographs of tricolor objects that depict nationalist obsessions in Cluj during its rule by the party of the extreme right. A study of the dialectic between subjectivity and an ideologically charged urban space. Coordonator: Joanne Richardson. Editor: Diana Balog. Volunteers: Eniko Nagy & Gabriela Torcatoru. .. [ description and stills ] .. [ download ]

3. Open. 15 min, 2004.
Short documentary about the political, economic and social implications of the Free and Open Source Software movement. The video includes interviews with various theorists and hackers that were filmed in Croatia, at Multimedia Institute in Zagreb and at the TransHack meeting in Pula. Coordonator: Mihai Pedestru. Editor: Diana Balog. Volunteers: Alex Vranceanu & Cristi Moldovan...[ download ]

4. Behind the Scene. 25 min, 2005.
Video documentary about art, artists and art institutions in Romania, made up of 60 interviews. The complete project is a 20 hour archive; the video represents only a very short selection. Coordonator: Nita Mocanu. Technical collaborator: Diana Balog. Volunteer: Eveline Bologa. .. [ description and stills ]

 

 

Real Fictions received financial support from: European Cultural Foundation