Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) 2022 presents
The Future is a Safe Place Hidden in my Braids
by Mihaela Drăgan
Country: Romania | Running Time: 18 | Language: Romanian | Year Of Release: 2021
About The Future is a Safe Place Hidden in my Braids
Mihaela Drăgan is interested in inventing a new ritual language that has the power to heal and empower Roma communities, so she updates the myths and old enchantments of Roma witches and combines them with the poetry of a modern anti-racist discourse, putting at the center of the narrative the figure of the Techno-Witch as leader of an utopian future in which the historical cycle of oppression against the Roma finally reaches an apocalyptic end.
With: The witches Mihaela Mincă, Casanndra Buzea, Ana Buzea, Anda Ion & Bianca Buzea
Text: Mihaela Mincă & Mihaela Drăgan
Image: Andreea Câmpeanu & Amalia Drăniceanu
Drone camera: Eugen Paraschiv
Editing: Andreea Câmpeanu
Sound design: Silly Conductor
Music: Alex Bălă
Lyrics of the song “Who hates race”: Mihaela Dragan
Song interpretation: Nicoleta Ghiță and Mihaela Drăgan
Voiceover: Mihaela Drăgan
Visual effects: cote.ggml
Costumes: ATU Body Couture and Zita Moldovan
Styling: Radu Arhanghel
“”The Future is a safe place hidden in my braids” is an experimental video that I filmed in November 2020 when, due to the pandemic, I felt the need to challenge and redefine my artistic practice, navigating from theater to film.
Created in the context of the global health crisis that has changed our lives and made people with an oppressive history even more vulnerable in this new reality in which acts of violence have been perpetuated against them, my film is about healing. More specifically about the healing of the Roma, the community I belong to.
The film continues the ideas and principles of Roma Futurism – an artistic concept I developed three years ago that refers to cultural aesthetics that explore elements of science fiction in Roma culture, intersecting Roma history, technology, witchcraft and culture. The film is structured in 3 parts, each focusing on the image of the witch and her healing rituals, from an anti-racist feminist perspective.
I was also interested in creating a new ritual language that has the power to provide healing and empower Roma communities. That is why I adapted and rewrote spells collected from Roma witches and combined them with an anti-racist discourse also rewritten and transposed through poetry, placing at the center of this narrative the figure of the witch as a leader towards a future free from oppression.
The character of the witch has the power to heal the transgenerational trauma of the Roma and leads us to a utopian future in which the historical cycle of oppression against the Roma finally reaches an apocalyptic end. By working with real witches I was interested in stimulating a natural exchange between my artistic practice and their magical practices. That is why in my film, the Roma witches put into practice these new rituals of the future meant to heal.
Present throughout the film is the image of the witch’s long hair, which is not used as a metaphor for femininity but as a metaphor for a utopian territory where Roma are protected from oppression, a place where they can live happily and with dignity. The hair that is often used in the most powerful spells of Roma women becomes a safe place to preserve the collective memory, but it also becomes the expression of the struggle of Roma women who plant the seed of the future for their entire community.
I hope that this experimental film will offer a sense of purpose to those who experience various forms of discrimination but also contribute to the healing process of individual or collective trauma. My belief is that there is a future for all of us and I choose to believe that this future is a safe place.”
Mihaela Drăgan
About Mihaela Drăgan
Mihaela Drăgan is an actress and playwright who lives in Bucharest and works in other several countries. Since 2014 she is the cofounder of the Roma feminist theater company Giuvlipen. She was one of the six finalists for The 2017 Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award from New York which acknowledges the exceptional work of 20 theatre women around the world. In 2018, she was a resident artist in Hong Kong at Para Site Contemporary Art Centre where she developed the concept of Roma Futurism.
About The Festival
The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) is an annual event showcasing films drawn from the world of theatre and performance. The festival presents experimental, emerging, and established theatre artists and filmmakers from around the world to audiences and industry professionals. The 7th annual festival will focus on work for the screen created by theatre artists during the Time of Corona. The festival will be held digitally from March 1st – 15th 2022.
Watch The Future is a Safe Place Hidden in my Braids from March 1st to March 15th 2022 on the Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) website.
Support this film by Mihaela Drăgan by making a direct donation to them at the following details: PayPal: giuvlipen@gmail.com Bank account: RO39BTRLEURCRT0318916401
Read more about Mihaela Drăgan and The Future is a Safe Place Hidden in my Braids at (https://giuvlipen.com/) or get in touch at giuvlipen@gmail.com / Facebook @giuvlipen / Instagram @giuvlipen
For more visit:
- https://revistaarta.ro/en/roma-futurism-and-roma-healing-historical-trauma-possible-futures-and-a-new-humanism/
- https://performingborders.live/interviews/spell-2-spell-for-the-future-interview-with-mihaela-dragan/
- https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/12760/roma-witches-against-racism-watch-spells-healing-historical-trauma
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCa8dX3fX5Q&t=9s&ab_channel=AkeDikhea%3FFestivalofRomaniFilm
- https://www.observatorcultural.ro/articol/tehno-vrajitoarea-si-reconfigurarea-viitorului-despre-un-proiect-artistic-roma-futurist/
- vice.com/ro/article/n7vg9d/feminism-roma-futurism-si-vremea-vrajitoarei
