As part of the ECHO III: For Memory’s Sake project, partnered in Romania with the RHEA platform, six young female artists who are interested in cinema have spent two weeks in Bucharest. They attended masterclasses with film professionals and experts and took most of their time to work on short film projects – to more accurately circumscribe them formally, videopoems – that they projected as rough cuts at the end of the program.This resulted in four films: Tell me a poem (by Ana Gurdiș and Elena Chirilă), Anemonae (Ioana Țurcan & Gergana Ivanova), Sad sad sad sad sad summer (Ornela Alia) and Sister of No Value (Katarzyna Wojtczak). Acoperișul de Sticlă asked the filmmakers a couple of questions while the experience was still fresh and hoping that their answers might inspire somebody else – whether future participants of this residency or similar ones or, generically, any beginner in finding an audiovisual form to express themselves. Because these endeavors were not, strictly speaking, personal – two films are co-directed by two participants -, things get more complicated in an interesting way. In other words, how do you „write” a videopoem accommodating somebody else and how can the results still reflect differently on their co-authors?

Ana Gurdiș

1. Briefly describe yourself in a way that you’d want viewers of your film to know you.

Ana Gurdiș, forever looking for herself.

2. What attracts you to audiovisual form as its potential for poetry?

This is my first time working on a videopoem, maybe I’ve done something similar in the past, but I didn’t know that’s what it’s called. I like it that I have at least three levels (video, audio and text) to tell a story, and the intertwining of the three creates new meanings. I will certainly keep exploring this cinematic side of poetry, and who knows where I may end up while looking for myself 🙂

3. How do you think this residency helped you find what you were looking for in order to shape your videopoem?

I think I needed this residency to remind myself why I enjoy doing. I worked with a true story and transposed it gently and discreetly into a video diary that later became a therapeutic relief for its protagonist and my teammate. I am proud to have met such an innocent and strong personality and to succeed in learning from her experience and it will certainly leave the spectators of this videopoem with something to think about.

Elena Chirilă

1. Briefly describe yourself in a way that you’d want viewers of your film to know you.

My artistic practice is founded on exploring context – the works take on issues such as personal perception as opposed to the collective one, the materiality of places or, in other cases, the dematerializing of the artwork.

As a cultural worker I was involved in several collaborative projects in the Republic of Moldova and Romania and I participated in a student exchange in France, at ESAAA (École Supérieure d’Art Annecy Alpes). Either in personal or collective projects, I like to deconstruct concepts such as female gaze, queer identity, collective memory, and undermining oppressive structures.

2. What attracts you to audiovisual form as its potential for poetry?

During the residency I found the video-poem format to be a particularly suitable format for addressing difficult and sensitive or personal topics, as I felt that marital practices in the Balkans involve aspects of generational trauma and dark heritage. The potential of the audiovisual form for poetry is also given by the fact that it offers to contemporary artists a complex and flexible medium of expression. I felt a lot of freedom and joy in having the means of intertwining visual images with sound, voiceover and text alongside with the meaning me and Ana Gurdiș wanted to give to our project.

Personally, I took the idea of “video-poem” quite literally and deconstructed it into a video-journal and a poem, and then fused them together. Since I was not very experienced in cinematography, I found it easier to write in order to express what I actually wanted to say. But nevertheless the audiovisual images served as an immeasurable ocean of meanings that helped the text to float and dive into the waves you could see on the screen. By doing this I hope we are leaving a lot of space to the viewer to contemplate about the story and how it makes them feel.

3.How do you think this residency helped you find what you were looking for in order to shape your videopoem?

 I am and will be endlessly grateful to Ana Gurdiș, who is the co-director of “Spune o poezie / Tell me a poem”, and our amazing facilitators Letiția Popa and Cristina Iliescu for the way in which we managed to develop the story so much better than I could have ever done it alone, yet so close to my soul and personal vision.

Letiția was the first to see the potential in me and my personal relation to the topic, and encouraged me into exploring my abilities in visual storytelling. Thanks to her I picked up the camera and started shooting, intuitively, even if it wasn’t perfect at all. Months later I had some observational footage that I thought was not suitable for a good movie. We were going back and forth around the imagery of marriage and female gaze, trying to use archive materials from several sources. But in the end it has turned out that we can make the best out of our collaboration by using the great chance that Ana is a documentary film director and I have a personal story I feel the need to instrumentalize.

Together with them, and also with Ruxandra Simion who has helped me edit the text, I learned how to use introspection in a non-invasive way to create a cohesive and impactful piece, that would be both healing for me and touching for the audience.

The residency gave me an incredibly safe space to share my experience, which happens all too rarely in the art scene, let alone in society, and without RHEA this story might never have been told, as are the stories of thousands of other women.

Ioana Țurcan

1. Briefly describe yourself in a way that you’d want viewers of your film to know you.

Hopefully funny, vulnerable and daring, a combination I did not manage to mix & match so far in most of my work.

2. What attracts you to audiovisual form as its potential for poetry?

The short form, or its possibility; the freedom to experiment, to create in a ludic manner and be part of a process that can be intimate but also faster than other forms.

3. How do you think this residency helped you find what you were looking for in order to shape your videopoem?

The videopoem was made as part of teamwork so it is definitely not only mine. In that sense I guess the residency helped a lot in finding our partners in crime, if we needed one. From there on, all settled in with discussions, editing, writing, plenty of research and the mandatory lunch.

Gergana Ivanova (Bulgaria)

1. Briefly describe yourself in a way that you’d want viewers of your film to know you.

As an individual, I have a deep appreciation for the richness of the past and the value of preserving cultural heritage. I seek out information about past times, languages, archives and ways of expression, fascinated by the diverse ways in which people have communicated and created throughout history. For me, preserving the past and memories is a way of honoring the achievements of those who came before us and ensuring that their legacies endure. At the same time, I am passionate about presenting these treasures in innovative and alternative ways, so that they can continue to inspire and enrich the lives of future generations.

 

2. What attracts you to audiovisual form as its potential for poetry?

As a visual artist, I am endlessly fascinated by the power of video as a tool for creative expression. I find it to be a dynamic medium that offers a unique combination of visual storytelling, emotional resonance, accessibility, and social connection. Through the use of expression and symbols, video allows me to transport viewers into new realms of experience and provide a sense of escapism that is unparalleled in other art forms.

 

3. How do you think this residency helped you find what you were looking for in order to shape your videopoem?

I have a deep passion for cinema and the power of video as a creative tool. During my residency, I had the incredible opportunity to collaborate with like-minded individuals from this field. Not only did this experience allow me to expand my skills, but it also helped me to envision my future ideas with greater clarity, including the incorporation of video materials into my work.

 

Ornela Alia (Albania)

1. Briefly describe yourself in a way that you’d want viewers of your film to know you.
   My film really started as a tribute to poetry, film, more specifically romcoms, and pop culture and I think I managed to capture that very essence. I often joke that I was raised by Disney but I don’t think it’s a joke anymore. I’m aware I use a lot of trivial elements in my work but that’s because of the depth and importance I believe they carry. I’m definitely playful, as a person and as an artist but there’s a lot of seriousness in that as well.
2. What attracts you to audiovisual form as its potential for poetry?
   I feel it makes poetry complete in a way it adds life and colour to words. It helps build a story and I appreciate the space it gives to the artist to experiment. 

3. How do you think this residency helped you find what you were looking for in order to shape your video poem?

Well…it made me feel at ease while I was attempting to come up with something. It’s so important for me to be around people whose morals and values, outside of work also, align with mine, and this type of energy was truly reflected throughout the process. I depend on people and support a lot; I like hearing ideas and opinions and also exchanging small stories as they all incite a little fire of creativity for me.

Katarzyna Wojtczak

1. Briefly describe yourself in a way that you’d want viewers of your film to know you.

I am an interdisciplinary artist, a sociocultural initiator, poor-gallerist with a background in architecture and painting. I am working in the areas of alternative social economies, critique of ongoing colonial processes and the emancipation of folk practices as forms of resistance. I am a feminist and LGBTQP+ queer activist. My work is situated at the intersection of art and collective processual practices. I explore anarchist politics and the relationship between geopolitics and collective (trauma) memory, post-memory.

My art practice is closely related to the activism and humanitarian work I am involved in. My work often takes the form of immersive interventionist forms. I am based between Poland and Greece.

2. What attracts you to audiovisual form as its potential for poetry?

My topics of research are closely related with political changes and trauma it causes. The audiovisual form of poetry reduces redundant content and creates a more abstract form which becomes a deeper vessel of narrative.

3. How do you think this residency helped you find what you were looking for in order to shape your videopoem?

Due to the residency I was able to find the essence of the topic I am regarding in a video-poem. It was found by the opportunity the residency has provided me in Bucharest. Working with a choir and focusing only on the rhythm of the abstract words creates a more meaningful narrative. The abstract of the lyrics emphasize the absurdity of the practices that must be ruined in order to create an integral part of life and start its regeneration. The form became equal with the content.