For our 17th edition we decided to focus on an idea and action that we engage with on a daily basis - one that has the potential to affect both the individual and society at large. 

Choice.

As our societies become more polarized and crises threaten daily comforts, financial security or geo-political and environmental stability, we tend to turn towards immediate resolve – and more importantly, personal rather than collective well-being.

Here still lies a responsibility towards ourselves and those around us; thus the dilemma arises: resist, question, or succumb to conformity? Keep a moral code, defend freedoms and rights in an eroding democracy or risk plunging into bigger demagoguery? Do we let ourselves split between “us” and “them”?

Overwhelmed by conscious or unconscious choices, we often take for granted the consequences of our decisions and actions. Their outcome may be immediate, delayed or futile within the sheer magnitude of the socio-economic systems we function in.

Nevertheless, every action incurs a reaction and our aim for the 17th edition is to observe  individuals and communities within a wide range of social, cultural and political contexts, and the choices they are faced with. It is their awareness and questioning of their circumstances that leads to critical, nuanced thinking.

Our main section gathers stories that speak of empathy and resistance, resilience and solidarity that define choices and ultimately, actions - concrete examples of humanity at work.

In FACING DARKNESS and THREE PROMISES, revisiting archival footage accentuates how the coping mechanism of recording daily fragments of normality during wartime creates, in retrospect, historical testimonies.

In NOTRE CORPS and QUEENDOM we see the individual choices towards one’s body as freedoms afforded or sanctioned by society - for healing, self-expression or resistance.

AL DJANAT, THE ORIGINAL PARADISE and AS THE TIDE COMES IN depict communities that are forced to choose between preserving ancestral ties, cultural heritage and way of life, or capitulating in front of modernity’s accelerated change.

The consequence of entrusting one’s unquestionable belief, whether religious or electoral, is explored in GOD BETWEEN US and SMILING GEORGIA.

We don’t get to choose the times we live in, yet one of the human freedoms we possess, despite external limitations, is the ability to choose one’s attitude. We hope that within this multicultural tapestry of stories we can find together a thread of reflection and inspiration for harmonizing our common future.

(Anca Păunescu, Andrei Tănăsescu)