Raluca Bugnar • Coordinator, EducaTIFF
“We are always treading on quicksand”
- The Transilvania IFF caters to a host of niche audiences, without forgetting about the youngest viewers, so the EducaTIFF coordinator broke down a few of the festival’s educational programmes for us
In her eighth year at EducaTIFF, journalist and PR specialist Raluca Bugnar has prepared the most ambitious edition ever for this popular child-orientated sidebar of the Transilvania International Film Festival (9-18 June). In a country where a new teacher earns less than €500 per month (a shocking underpayment that was at the heart of a three-week nationwide strike that has just ended), education through cinema is almost non-existent, which makes EducaTIFF even more relevant and useful.
Cineuropa: How do you see education in Romania in general and education through cinema in particular?
Raluca Bugnar: Everything is relative. As in so many other fields in Romania, things can be quite different depending on each individual case, and it seems to me that the outcome depends mostly on luck. I've noticed that, if you go to take care of an administrative issue, for which you need the help of a clerk, you will most likely have very different interactions (and rates of success) depending on who you happen to be queuing for. That's pretty much how it seems to be with education. As a student, if you're lucky enough to have things line up for you, you can have a good experience. If you’re not that lucky, well...
There's a lot to talk about and not a lot to talk about regarding education through cinema in Romania. We are exploring the topic again this year at EducaTIFF during the two-day Reshape Education event, with guests such as Laufey Gudjonsdottir, the former director of the Icelandic Film Centre; Sergio Marques, the manager of Cinema Insuflável and programmer for the Play Film Festival; Monica Sebestyen, the manager of Cinema Arta, Romania's oldest cinema still in operation today; and Dorina Oargă and Raluca Nemeti, representatives of the European Film Club. A new thing since last year is an online platform called Ora de cinema [“Cinema Class”], which is designed to facilitate the use of one class per week in secondary schools for film education, together with discussions on important topics for teenagers, such as bullying or the climate crisis.
On the other hand, one can't ignore the fact that over the years during which we have been working in this field, film-education projects have come and gone as soon as their funding has ended. We are always treading on quicksand.
The 2023 edition is the most complex ever; what is new this time?
This year, we have organised the most activities we’ve had so far, indeed. The newest thing is an inflatable screen brought in from Portugal to host screenings of animated short films for children (aged three and up). After TIFF ends in Cluj-Napoca, there will be local editions in other cities, and among the films screened, there will be movies from the EducaTIFF sidebar, too.
What do teachers think about EducaTIFF?
I imagine there is a whole spectrum of opinions. Just the other day, the mother of one of our regular viewers, Andrei, wrote to me to tell me that he's finally coming with his classmates to the screenings, as he has finally convinced his teacher. We have many teachers who are fond of our screenings, and also many parents. And 2020 taught us that we can function without the support of schools, as at that edition, we had virtually only young viewers coming with their families.
At the end of the screenings, you moderate Q&A sessions with the young viewers. Based on their questions, what do you think they are concerned about when it comes to cinema?
Our Q&As have a two-fold role – that’s how we designed them, me and my wonderful colleague Daniel Iftene, who is both a journalist and an assistant professor at the local Faculty of Theatre and Film. We have discussions after each screening. The kids ask us questions, but we ask them questions, too. For example, we did a hands-up vote to find out what their favourite genre was. Horror came out on top, although I would have expected it to be among the least popular genres! Yesterday, a boy at the Belle and Sebastian - Next Generation [+see also:
trailer
film profile] Q&A asked me if the sheep being born on screen was real or computer-generated. I told him and the rest of the audience that both the sheep and the wolves in the film were real, as the director had the chance to work with an amazing animal trainer, a detail I knew from the film’s press kit. Our young viewers are honest and always surprising, and that's why we love them. They make sure we go to the screenings with our homework done right!
What does EducaTIFF do for disadvantaged communities? Have you ever had screenings for children who had not previously seen films on a big screen?
Yes, at some editions, we’ve welcomed children who have never been in a cinema or even any other cultural venue before. We sometimes show films in villages, helped by Tudor Baciu from Cinemobilul [a film caravan that screens movies for thousands of people without access to a regular cinema]. The desire to reach out to these communities is there, but we don't always succeed.
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