One Month in Wroclaw, Poland: Brave Festival New Horizons International Film Festival
2012; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 39; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1543-3404
Autores Tópico(s)Polish Historical and Cultural Studies
ResumoThe seventh annual Festival and the eleventh New Horizons International Film Festival (New Horizons IFF) took place July 2011 in Wroclaw, Poland. The festivals permeated the city, from the cobblestone dust kicked up at the outdoor Arsenal Stage during music/multimedia/performance works, to the enormous outdoor cinema screen in the city's central Rynek Square, to numerous above-and underground clubs with live jazz or DJ/VJs spinning it old-school. Offering more than five hundred films, fifty music and cultural performances, related gallery exhibitions and programming, and both ticketed and free events, the festivals attract visitors from around the world. Just a sampling of the offerings revealed the quality of discourse about media-based work and culture. Wroclaw (pronounced vrots-love) is the fourth largest city in Poland, and the capital of Lower Silesia Province. The thousand-year-old city has a rich and diverse history: it has been destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly since medieval times, and consequently has had over fifty names. For the past sixty-six years, it has been the resilient city of Wroclaw. It is home to the rebellious Orange Alternative Dwarves who brought about political change in the 1980s--nonviolently, but with a mischievous sense of disruption. At night, as one navigates the city's many bridges, the air is full of light and color, reflecting off the River Oder (Odra). It is a city that embraces cultural treasures and differences, remixing past, present, and future--as is expressed in the planned cultural events, street art, and clubs. Historical and cultural traces are both very present and glaringly absent. Many cultural treasures and people have been created and destroyed, displaced and relocated to and from this now vibrant city of over 600.000 residents. The city has a young vibe (one in six residents are students) and an old soul. The Festival is best described by Artistic Director Grzegorz Bral: Festival--The festival of the brave, of the people who say where they are from, what their values are, traditions and spirituality. This is not a festival about works of art but about the art [that] can save and protect thousands of forgotten, abandoned, lonely cultures and people. (1) Do not mistake this for a spectacle of token actions and performances. The dialogue was active and engaging, including many opportunities for discussion and brainstorming. A vital part of the programming was Brave Kids, which included children from the cultures represented. This year, some of the children were from Uganda and were included in the inspiring and powerful film Bouncing Cats (2010, directed by Nabil Elderkin), about the opportunities and determination created by Breakdance Project Uganda, founded by Abramz Tekya. Tekya works with children and teens in Uganda to teach leadership skills, self-confidence, and self-expression through creating music and dance and embracing b-boy culture. Weekly lessons are taught at four locations throughout the country, with the funds raised through the sale of T-shirts paying the tuition for children to attend school. Children from many tribes come together, some using movements from traditional dances that are integrated into a more personal physicality. Influenced by the Rock Steady Crew--originators of breakdance in the 1970s--b-boy Crazy Legs and others visit Abramz and the children in the film. The music, narration, and other usage rights were gifted to the film by some of today's most prolific hip-hop artists and producers. The abject poverty the viewer observes, and the devastation of the children's bodies by the Lords Resistance Army, is shocking but does not deter Abramz from his mission. This film is about hope and determination. The loss of his parents to AIDS when he was seven years old forced Abramz to find his way, and he now devotes his life to empowering those around him. Each one teach one, We are all teachers and students, and Be where you are celebrated, not tolerated, are his mantras, and they resonate beyond the duration of the film. …
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