Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) 2022 presents
#newTogether
by Carmen Lidia Vidu
Country: Austria, Romania | Running Time: 54 | Language: English | Year Of Release: 2021
About #newTogether
During the lockdown that followed the outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the Austrian Cultural Forum in Bucharest invited 60 artists from both countries to talk about their own future, as well as about the transformations their art could undergo during this period and after the end of the health crisis.
The documentary #newTogether is a true dictionary of ideas and states of mind during the pandemic period.
“#newTogether is a necessary project. It’s a form of dialogue in isolation; it’s a testimony about the Zero Moment. Our fragility, vulnerability and fear became a universal language that we all spoke in 2020, the year of the covid-19 pandemic. People isolated themselves, time stood still and a “new together” began.” – Carmen Lidia Vidu, film director
“A remarkable documentary film” (Dumitru Budrala, director Astra Film Festival Sibiu, Astra Film Festival 2021 – a mix of experiences, Capital Cultural)
“In a poignant radiography of the reclusiveness of the first months of the pandemic, we see in #newTogether how 60 independent artists attempt to articulate a discourse, which is distinct from political or medical ones, about their confrontation with uncertainty, isolation, and fear, proposing ways to resist and overcome the global health crisis. Their testimonies compete with the official discourse, and talk about a new way of being together, about overcoming barriers and the wooden language. This is a meditation on the limits of art in confrontation with life’s violence” (Prof. Vlad Alexandrescu, historian of ideas and expert of the Romanian independent art sector, former ambassador and minister of culture; ASTRA Film Festival 2021)
“You should discover #newTogether because it’s fascinating! The kind of puzzle Orson Wells would have been proud of, a Dadaist picture puzzle with animations so well matched… A sensational experience!” (Irina Margareta Nistor, The Voice of the Movies)
“#newTogether is a boundary-crossing snapshot of thoughts from the arts community that could only be created in the unique time period of the very first Corona lockdown. In retrospect, the documentary offers special insights into the great challenge that the cultural scene in particular had to face.” (Irina Wolf, theatrescu.com)
“The video-experiment (designed by the Austrian Cultural Forum) and the #newTogether documentary directed by Carmen Lidia Vidu, based on that video material, is not only an ideational exercise, but also a substitute for mobility between two cultural spaces” (Oana Cristea Grigorescu, #newTogether – dialogue in isolation of people and cultures, Capital Cultural)
“The #newTogether documentary shows the differences in mentality between Austrian and Romanian artists. The former are more concerned with the changes in society brought about by the pandemic, the latter come with more personal testimonies. The pandemic has made the artists more aware of their fragility and their role in society and has made us, the audience, more aware of how precious their art has been to us in order to get through the isolation period imposed by the health crisis”. (Mirela Nagâț, Cooltura, TVR1)
“The vulnerabilities revealed by the film make it clear that anyone can be affected, at any time, by such borderline situations. Last but not least, solutions are suggested for the cultural field and beyond to adapt to the continuous changes of an uncertain future. The #newTogether documentary is, of course, a look into the past, but at the same time a breath of fresh air for the present and the future”. (Irina Radu, Einsam, isoliert, gemeinsam… , Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung für Rumänien)
About Carmen Lidia Vidu
Carmen Lidia Vidu looks around and searches for stories, people and bribes of history with a small “h”, which she brings to theatre and film audiences in artistic forms that generate emotion. She is the only Romanian director to have won both GOPO and UNITER, the Romanian film and theater awards for best directing.
Online, she is a strong feminist voice, an opinion leader who speaks out on socio-political, cultural, civic issues, on people and places she discovers in her documentaries.
“It is evidence that the entire cultural sector – in Austria, in Romania, in Europe, all over the world – is one of the most deeply affected social areas, during the corona pandemic. The important Austrian and Romanian artists that we invited to take part in the #newTogether project pointed out their individual experiences, the opportunities they see in this crisis and the impact of the corona related changes to their art. They were also questioning the limits of the gigantic cultural experiment that we witnessed on the Internet, keeping in mind that ‘all real living is meeting’, as said by the Austrian philosopher, Martin Buber” Thomas Kloiber, director of the Austrian Cultural Forum Bucharest
“Far from looking into a crystal ball, the #newTogether project intends to open the debate about the adjustment of the cultural sector to this unexpected situation, about the relationship with its audience and society in general, after this imposed “stop” period. The starting point is precisely a paradox that has changed our lives lately – we are together, even in a closer connection than ever, from a distance…” Andrei Popov, deputy director of the Austrian Cultural Forum Bucharest, executive producer of the documentary film #newTogether – visions for a new Together
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 #newTogether from March 1st to March 15th 2022 on the Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) website.
Support this film by Carmen Lidia Vidu by making a direct donation to them at the following details: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=FHJSR9V8434BC
Read more about Carmen Lidia Vidu and #newTogether at (https://www.newtogether.at/the-documentary/) or get in touch at carmen.vidu@gmail.com /
