Bunica

A documentary about Romania
by Elke Groen & Ina Ivanceanu

Bunica lives in Romania.
Bunica is 89-year-old Ana Ionescu, the grandmother of one of the film’s directors. The interesting story of her life centres around a century full of changes and upheavals. Her experiences, her memories and her social networks lead the viewer to other people, other lives, other realities. In the film Bunica they tell their stories, describe their dreams and look into the future.

How Ceaucescu’s executor became vice prime minister overnight, why the scrap iron collectors in the streets of Bucharest are angry, what took a young Romanian to Alaska, whether or not politics and justice are compatible and what the old lady thinks about it all: that is what Bunica is about.

Bunica is a trip through the Romania of yesterday and today – a trip through social and political landscapes full of contradictions, from the pulsating capital city of Bucharest to the rural periphery. Supported by archive material, the film portrays, from a personal point of view, a country that is still looking for its place in Europe 15 years after the revolution.

http://www.bunica.at/

The NOPOOR Project

Synopsis

Around the world, the gap between the rich and poor is spiralling out of control. Today, 85 people own as much wealth as the poorest half of humanity. Extreme inequality causes a range of health and social problems. It stifles social mobility, keeping some families poor for generations, while others enjoy year after year of privilege. It fuels crime and even violent conflict. These corrosive consequences affect us all, but the impact is worst for the poorest people. At the core of the films NOPOOR is an intense worldwide discussion: What can bring some real comfort to the lives of millions of people? Is it a matter of resources? Political will? The right framework? Five years of research, four continents, one vision: The film accompanies the research project NOPOOR in which over 100 researchers worldwide currently work on finding new ways to end extreme poverty in the world.

Credits
Drehbuch & Regie Ina Ivanceanu
Kamera & Schnitt Elke Groen
Grafiken Georg Flor
Produkionsleitung Philipp Reimer
Produzenten Bady Minck, Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu
Produktion AMOUR FOU Vienna in Zusammenarbeit mit Oikodrom

Free Spaces

FREE SPACES, based on the SPACES project,  shows a new image of four major Eastern European cities. Ina Ivanceanu followed artists and activists who try to regain their right to the city and their freedom of expression with wit and creativity. A cinema gets occupied, an old Soviet circus reactivated, a gloomy underground passage transformed into an ironic but glamorous arena and a factory site converted into a cultural Agora. The film shows that conditions are similar in Tbilisi (Georgia), Yerevan (Armenia), Chisinau (Moldova) – and in Kiev (Ukraine), where civil society revolts, led by artists. All actions and projects reclaim public space in artistic and innovative ways.

http://www.amourfoufilm.com/en/film/free-spaces/