miercuri, 16 noiembrie 2011

Un nou film: Povestiri din Bărăgan: Amintiri din Siberia românească

Împreună cu Claudia Florentina Dobre am început două proiecte de memorie orală: unul despre amintirile foștilor deportați în anii `50 și cel de-al doilea despre femeile deținute politic în perioada stalinistă. Duminica trecută (13 noiembrie 2011) am realizat două interviuri extrem de interesante. Mai jos regăsiți un scurt colaj al celor două interviuri. Chiar dacă timpul ne presează, iar banii pentru astfel de proiecte nu există - sunt convins de faptul că până în vara lui 2012 vom putea avea primele proiecții ale celor două filme în spațiul academic românesc și, de ce nu, internațional.


În seara de 18/19 iunie 1951, 44 000 de persoane au fost deportate din Banat şi Mehedinţi în Bărăgan. Transportate cu trenuri de marfă, acestea au fost abandonate în 18 puncte ale stepei româneşti. Lăsaţi sub cerul liber, în plin câmp, deportaţii au făcut figură de adevăraţi “descoperitori” într-ale civilizaţiei atât pentru propriile familii, cât şi pentru băştinaşi. Eliberaţi de povara “domiciliului obligatoriu” în 1956, mulţi dintre foştii deportaţi vor rămâne în Bărăgan pentru a-şi duce misiunea mai departe.

Dintre cei 44 000 de bătrâni, tineri, copii şi adulţi părăsiţi de autorităţile comuniste în stepele Bărăganului, peste 1600 şi-au găsit sfârşitul în locurile de deportare. Amintirea lor mai dăinuie doar în povestirile supravieţuitorilor, casele lor fiind făcute demult una cu pământul. Chiar şi cimitirele au fost transformate în teren arabil, din oasele deportaţilor crescând acum mici pâlcuri de păduri de stepă.

Postez mai jos proiectul trimis către mai mulți finanțatori. Din păcate nu am primit nici un răspuns până în acest moment. În cazul în care doriți să contribuiți la realizarea acestor proiecte (financiar sau cu informații, date de contact – persoane care fac parte din eșantionul propus, să participați la filmări sau montaj etc.) vă rugăm să ne contactați. Noi am început munca și suntem convinși că vom realiza tot ce ne-am propus.

How to survive communism and political repression

(Life strategies of former political detainees)

Arguments:

In Romania, remembering communist regime remains a controversial issue. A male oriented narrative on communist repression and anticommunist resistance dominates the public discourses. A feminine perspective on communism and political persecutions has enjoyed only limited public visibility. Women have been depicted as victims of the regime and their anti-communist endeavors have been integrated in the broader topic of the anticommunist resistance.

The absence of a public feminine narrative on communism and repression raised questions about women’s roles and gender relations during communism and after the collapse of the regime, but also about the women’s construction of subjectivities in respect with the communist regime ideology and postcommunist national discourses on communism and repression.

This project will focus on womens’ life stories in order to emphasize the women responses to communist propaganda, political repression and communist equality abuses. Our targeted group is composed by 30 women, former political detainees, who had experienced the entire spectrum of communist deeds and ideology: repression, communist equality, everyday life, working life, etc.

We argue that womens’ (former political detainees) narratives on communism and repression fit the public discourse on communism, while constructing personal self-esteem identities based on moral and civic virtues such freedom of speach, of travelling, of learning, of political and religious choices, patriotism seen as an everyday choice, etc.

Key words : memory, collective memory, political persecutions, communism, lustration, women, former political detainees, trauma and narratives, everyday life, movies and gender, life stories, civism and idealism

Research questions:

1. How women had coped with political persecutions?

2. How did they survive in prisons? What strategies did they employ in order to survive starvation, cold, torture, fear and so on?

3. How did they integrate society after being released from prisons? Has the society disregarded them? What about their families? Did they got a job? A family?

4. How women, former political detainees, perceive communist equality?

5. How they explain today their life choices?

6. What type of identity they build after the liberation, but also after the fall of communism?

7. Do they see themselves as the public discourses depicted them?

Research methodology:

1. 30 Life stories interviews with women, former political detainees;

2. Archives research on women persecutions;

3. The analysis of other “memorial vectors”, like memory journals, photos, objects, etc. belonging to former political detainees;

4. Recording the interviews and the realization of a documentary movie based on the interviews.

Aims and outcomes :

1. A book based on the interviews, which will introduce to a large audience several life stories of former political detainees focused on their life strategies. The book is set as an example of moral virtue and civic involvement of women.

2. Two academic articles published in international or/and national journals, which aims at academically publicized women endeavors during communism and their life choices guided by civic ideals and national pride.

3. Two international/national conference papers, which will debate the complex topic of women repression and gender sensitiveness during communism.

4. A documentary movie of 50 minutes presented to conferences, to high schools symposiums, to University courses and academic conferences. In today world our memory is very much shaped by images. This documentary movie can contribute to a civic and gender self-esteemed raise among women in Romania. A year later, the movie will be posted on internet for a wide public visibility.

5. The creation of a site where fragments of the movie, photos, archives documents and transcripts will be displayed in order to broadly publicized the women anticommunist choices, their courage in dealing with communist repression and their strategies to cope with everyday life during communism. Another goal of the site is to get a feed-back on the topic.

6. The movie will be used as pedagogic support for one course taught at Political Science Faculty of SNSPA and for one course taught at the Faculty of History, University of Bucharest and for presentation in 20 highs schools from Bucharest, Calarasi, Giurgiu and Cluj. It aims at generating an academic interest for communism and a civic response to its destructive endeavors.

7. The multiplication of the movies on DVDs sent to libraries (estimated 1500 copies), which aims at stimulating people interest for the recent past, for a civic response to political, ethnic, religious and gender persecutions.

Periods of project realization:

October 2011 – June 2012 – interviews realizations, archives research, writing articles

June 2012 – September 2012 – content analysis of primary sources, movie creation

October 2012 – book editing

February 2013 – movie presentation.

Estimated budget for the realization of the movie: 3800 euros

1. Interviews realization: travels, accommodation in the country : 1800 euros

2. Cost for voice/translate actors reading archives documents, interpreting: 1000 euros

3. Camera and technical support: 1000 euros

Estimated budget for distribution of the movie: 2000 euros

– 1500 DVDs, postal taxes, flyers, presentation material.

Own funding / partners – (Camera, microphones, lamps, soft program, PC, video-projector, conference rooms, supplies) – 3000 euros

Video editing – 2000 euros

Estimated total budget: 10800 euros

Total funding request: 5800 euros

Project Tenants:

Claudia-Florentina DOBRE majored in Historiography and History of Culture at the University of Bucharest. She held a Master of Arts in Social Sciences from Ecole doctorale francophone en sciences sociales, Europe centrale et orientale. In June 2007, she defended her thesis on Women’s, former political detainees, testimonies on communism and political persecutions at Laval University of Québec. Subsequently, she was awarded « Robert Schuman scholarship of the European Parliament, in 2008, and « Junior Research Fellowship » of St. Kliment Ohrdiski University of Sofia, in 2009. She is currently enrolled in the postdoctoral program of Bucharest University, POSDRU ID 62259, and works as editor at Memoria Magazine, Bucharest.

Most important publications: Vies menottées, paroles libérées. Témoignages des anciennes persécutées politiques roumaines, Editions universitaires européennes, Saarbrücken, 2010, 401 p.; «Quand rêver de la France menait à la prison: le cas des détenues politiques du „lot français », in Bogumil Jewsiewicki, Erika Nimis, dir., Expériences et mémoires. Partager en français la diversité du monde, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2008 : 78-86; « Ni héros, ni victime. La mise en patrimoine de la répression et les anciens persécutés politiques roumains », in Vincent Auzas, Bogumil Jewsiewicki, eds., Traumatisme collectif pour patrimoine. Regards sur un mouvement transnational, Presses de l’Université Laval, Québec, 2008 : 331- 350.

Valeriu ANTONOVICI, Ph.D. in Political Science, at the Doctoral School for Political Sciences-SNSPA; master degree in Anthropology and Community Development; BA in Sociology; independent documentary film maker.

Researcher in the international project: „Transitions in Central and South Eastern Europe – Changing Gender Perspectives“, ERSTE Foundation, FILEA Centre, SNSPA, 2008 – 2010 ; Researcher in the project : „Changing Conceptions of Citizenship in Post-Socialist Society Under the Impact of Globalization”, financed by the Wenner Gren Anthropological Research Foundation (SUA) and made through a partnership between Central Connecticut State University – USA, SNSPA – Romania and Kerala University – India, 1st of June 2007 – 2009 ; Project Coordinator: David A. Kideckel.

Documentary Film Director : „Memorial places in Romania. University Square” – film made in collaboration, 2009, 51 min; „We cannot talk about communism at street corners”- qualitative research 2007, 56 min).

Doctorate internship at: Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam and Marc Bloch Centre, Berlin, Germany (1st of October 2009 – 1st of June 2010).