Sofia
Films provided with English and Bulgarian subtitles DIY cinema by queers and their friends in solidarity with Palestinians!
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Films
COMING OF AGENCY
Music video story of queer failure and solidarity in the face of oppression and injustice.
The song is a cry for mutual aid and solidarity in the face of repressive systems, refuting capitalist notions of competition and success and celebrating failure, unconditional acceptance and togetherness. The video follows the trajectory of a central character and their interaction with different archetypes, people or concepts (all part of queer culture and/or communities), each transforming and emancipating them. It is a cry for togetherness and relating at a time of severe alienation. The video celebrates the vital importance of queer chosen families, of people who pledge a duty of care to each other in the face of oppression and injustice.
Bogdan Balla (n. 1998) is currently studying for his master’s degree in film direction from the National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” in Bucharest, after having finished the film direction bachelor’s at the same institution in 2020. He has directed three short movies: “Margins”, “Prisons and other notes on hiding” and “I was sleepwalking when I saw all of those colours” – all exploring queer themes in a local context.
BECOMING ITHACA
A love poem from a soldier to a refugee.
This poem is for you. You who were found washed ashore on the island I was sworn to protect. You who crossed my border. You who showed me the bittersweet taste of drowning at sea. I am sinking now, drowning in your eyes, naked, stripped of my identities, my prejudices, my defences. I am sinking now, drowning in love.
A friend of mine said I make art-installation films and I like that description. I haven’t formally studied directing but I love holding a camera. I am a sucker for Dogme style but I’ll add my name to the credits as director.
I WISH I WAS A BIRD (Trailer)
A refugee’s video diary.
This is a diary of videos, photos, and words by Ali, who is from Iran. The film spans three months of his time in Greece while seeking refuge and helping others do the same. It portrays his intimate relationship with other refugees and the volunteers who stand with them in solidarity.
Ali is from Tehran, Iran and Aya is from Burgas, Bulgaria. They met in Thessaloniki, Greece, while cooking food for refugees and others living on the city streets. I wish I was a bird was Ali’s first film. Afterwards he lived in Berlin for a while where he was working part-time as an art handler in different galleries and in his spare time working on new documentary projects. Aya graduated with a degree in Film & TV from Westminster University in London. After that they travelled extensively for three years and now they’re nesting in Sofia, Bulgaria, where they make art and community.
PERSONAL DRAMA
Aliens read a newspaper.
Ivelina is a Sofia-based digital artist. Her works are mixed-media, combining a variety of techniques, including handdrawn animation, 2D & 3D digital animation, film and sound collage. Her fields of practice include live visualizations, projection mapping and interactive installations.
TUNNEL VISION
Experimental travel documentary following the contradictory reality and speciesism that the human race inflicts on a daily basis.
We decide which animals we should love, take care, protect and which animals we would breed, captive, and murder in human’s perspective. When someone starves to death on the street, someone buys luxury bags, takes selfies, and builds huge chapels to pray for end poverty.
Haru was born and raised in Seoul. After completing his studies of 16 years and realizing what was to come, he decided it would be better to die on his journey to personal freedom than to work in Seoul forever. So he left South Korea at the end of 2014 and traveled through 60 countries, hitchhiking more than 40,000km. During his travels, he started to make films to inspire people to make positive changes for themselves and the world. He is still on the move as an activist for the environment, women rights and animal liberation.
BLOODY RAIN
Music video portraying the struggle of animals for liberation.
Queer anarcha feminist vegan art collective.
IMMERSION
An experiment with the possibility of creating an alternate reality through art and merging with it, becoming a creation of your own.
“Immersion” is a short and quite absurd clip that is not plot driven, the idea of i is one of reaching a deep connection with your own creation, which is an expression of the universe within yourself
Magda Staleva (24) is a Bulgarian mainly visual artist interested in the surreal and avantgarde currently working mainly under the alias Hex Pixie.
FOOTUROPA
The East plays a football match against the West.
Footuropa is an installment in Voin Voynov’s study of psycho-geography, which examines the construction of a new European identity. The project stems from Voin Voynov’s experience as a Bulgarian (and as a former illegal immigrant of Western Europe). His body – a human compass – has become the axis point of those two geographical linear directions, East and West. It is through this personal history (incorporating his practice in performance, installation and video) that the project commences.
Voin lives in Sofia. He runs the independent art space Aether, and is a freelancer in the field of art and performance.
KOLELOTO
Queer and witchy music video.
Gibo Baby is a young non-binary Romani Bulgarian rapper and artist.
THINK OF OTHERS
A reading of Palestinian author Mahmoud Darwish’s poem Think of Others.