The 10th Year.
We’ll Get Over Our Fear. | Alexandru Solomon
At the end of winter, One World Romania arrives at its 10th edition. It’s been nine years since the festival has been throwing open the windows of the world, nine years for which we are grateful to our viewers, guests and collaborators. And yet, we’ve never been more afraid than over the past year.
What can we see through the windows? The world seems overcome by cold and darkness. Bucharest is the capital of quarrelsomeness. Europe is quaking in her boots. Over the ocean, they have set the tone for fear. Fear engenders violence. Violence breeds hatred. Hatred festers in frustration. Frustration fuels our bad temper and brings out the worst in us.
What are the fearmongers telling us? To shut ourselves in our homes, because we are under siege: migrants and terrorists, muslims or easterners, homosexuals and NGO workers are supposedly attacking from all sides. Fear – of the other, of change, of poverty, of disease and wars – works. The winter of our fear is in full swing. And we are celebrating our 10th edition. So we are talking to you about fear.
The festival’s first theme: fear wins votes. It has created celebrities. Populists from everywhere are thriving from it. Voted for by those who are afraid, by those who have nothing left to lose because they have lost almost everything. Hope, illusions, often their money. The films in this section are portraits of winners and losers. The second theme is about those who go against the tide, because some people are truly not afraid. Everywhere in the world there are people and communities, large and small, who persist in coming out of their shells, in lending a helping hand, in tearing down a wall. The third theme: fear of surveillance. States spy on their subjects, corporations control our minds and pockets. Everything is a lie or, as they call it these days, post-truth. The fourth: justice without fear. From the four corners of the earth we bring you films that speak about injustice, about people who have every reason to lose their faith in justice. The fifth section brings together films about harassment and abuse: because fear engenders violence. The violence of the strong against the weak, of the majority against the minorities, of men against women, of the state against its own citizens. Finally, the sixth theme deals with fear of hospitals. Medical systems – in our country and elsewhere – are sicker than their patients, whom they leave to die. After Colectiv, we owe others more than an exercise in public compassion.
One World Romania documentaries are medicine for the mind and soul. Here, take these antidotes against fear and have a look at the world around you. Don’t be afraid. Nine years of struggle have also brought us much more joy. And there is always more of it to come.