Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) 2022 presents
POSTWEST – something digital
by Gianina Cărbunariu / Teatrul Tineretului Piatra Neamț
Country: Romania | Running Time: 19 | Language: English | Year Of Release: 2020
About POSTWEST – something digital
The video essay seeks to offer a glimpse into the process of creating a theatre performance, a process transformed due to the pandemic situation. The collage invites us to reflect on visible and invisible borders, particularly during this moment of crisis that might reshape our understanding of what Europe is today and what it could or should be. It is also a way to make peace with a difficult situation, to move forward and search for new possibilities.
Credits: a concept by Gianina Cărbunariu, Mihai Păcurar and Dorothee Curio (Germany)
Composer and Sound Designer: Alex Halka
Assistant Director: Vlad Socea
Video Documentation Câmpulung: Vlad Petri
Research: Valer Simion Cosma
A coproduction between Teatrul Tineretului and Volksbühne Berlin
Funded by Consiliul Județean Neamț/Neamț County Council
Supported by Romanian Cultural Institute „Titu Maiorescu” Berlin
“The particularity of this work is that initially it was supposed to be a performance co-produced by Teatrul Tineretului in Romania with the Volksbühne Theatre from Berlin in the frame of the international project POSTWEST. The project had 11 international theatres as partners. The festival was supposed to take place in Volksbühne Theatre in May 2020 and to present 11 performances to the German audience about the relation between East and West, but in April 2020 we had to take the decision to replace it with an online festival – „Postwest // guess where”, a transcultural festival.
The initial theatre performance was supposed to be called POSTWASTE. In February 2020 we did a lot of research on the subject of illegal toxic and non-toxic waste shipping from West European countries such as Germany, Italy or UK to East European countries such as Romania, Poland, Bulgaria. Most of this waste arrives in cement factories and it is used as fuel. The communities around these factories are very affected by the pollution resulting from this industrial process. Up till now there is no traceability of this phenomena.
The “digital product” is called “POSTWEST – Something digital”. I decided not to record a performance, it was almost impossible anyway: we have canceled the rehearsals because of the lockdown. A zoom reading didn’t seem a relevant option as well. So we used footage from the research and photos from the artistic preparation of the project, done in Berlin one year before. I added photos from the reality of the lockdown: the movement of the cheap labourers from Romania to Germany or the UK, while nobody else was moving.
Also, this essay tried to capture the moment of shock when theatre artists from different countries were facing the situation of trying to change their instruments in order to “produce” a digital work in less than a month. We were all somehow in the situation of giving up our performances that became a kind of “waste” in this new context. We tried to “recycle” all that we could in a creative way.
The process of creating „POSTWEST – Something digital” involved artists from two countries (Romania and Germany) and from 5 different cities (Bucharest, Berlin, Cluj, Arad and Piatra Neamț). We would have zoom meetings in order to develop the essay and to take artistic decisions together. We have decided to name this work „a video essay” because it is not really a documentary, even if it uses only documentary material. It is a kind of testimony on the challenges we faced during a specific moment of the pandemic: the first lockdown. It tries to question what Europe means today, 30 years after 1989 and what will happen in the future in terms of pollution, working conditions, migration, performing arts, artistic networks etc.” – Gianina Cărbunariu / Teatrul Tineretului Piatra Neamț
About Gianina Cărbunariu / Teatrul Tineretului Piatra Neamț
Gianina Cărbunariu is a Romanian director&playwright. Her performances have been created by independent production associations, but also collaborating with theatres in Romania and abroad (CDN Madrid, Emilia Romagna Fondazione (ERT), Kammerspiele Theater Munich) and presented in international festivals. Her performance „Solitaritate” was presented in the official selection of Avignon Festival. Her plays have been produced in Royal Court, Schaubühne, Dramaten Stockholm, Volkstheater etc.
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 POSTWEST – something digital from March 1st to March 15th 2022 on the Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) website.
Read more about Gianina Cărbunariu / Teatrul Tineretului Piatra Neamț and POSTWEST – something digital at (https://www.teatrultineretului.ro) or get in touch at ttliterar@gmail.com / Facebook @teatrultineretului.piatraneamt / Instagram @teatrul.tineretului
For more visit:
- https://www.dw.com/de/rum%C3%A4nische-regisseurin-die-pandemie-hat-unsere-sicht-auf-europa-ver%C3%A4ndert/a-53921141?fbclid=IwAR1yN8Y1dXZxGUDzy3xf4NZ_WTRop1DX7kHMhkiBCU61DexVKndXvuNuOjQ
- https://www.theatrescu.com/projekte/schwerpunkt-rumaenische-zeitgenoessische-regisseure/gianina-carbunariu-in-diesen-ungewoehnlichen-pandemie-zeiten-koennen-wir-wichtige-dinge-schaffen/
- https://neweasterneurope.eu/2020/09/03/addressing-politics-and-stereotypes-through-theatre-during-a-pandemic/?fbclid=IwAR3R0qsNZhgbJaZDllhOJOZ1QKN6nwykZ1z3S0xbolO1SY59xOYPcsUM80ohttps://taz.de/Interkulturelles-Festival-der-Volksbuehne-Berlin/!5691502/
- https://www.scena9.ro/article/volksbuhne-gianina-carbunariuhttp://szinhaz.net/2020/07/13/darvay-botond-szimbiozisokk-kelet-nyugat-vonatkozasban/
- https://www.observatorcultural.ro/articol/unde-sintem-aici-acum/
