Docs at the Library, an initiative launched in 2022 by the One World Romania Association in partnership with the Mediawise Society media education and resource centre, returns this year to four counties, three of which participate for the first time: Ialomița, Neamț and Teleorman. Dâmbovița remains a constant part of the program, participating for the third consecutive year.
The initiative takes a bold step to increase the media and image literacy skills of the general public, with documentary film as teaching material. At the same time, the project represents a long-term effort to enrich the work of rural, municipal or county libraries, activating them as cultural hubs and signalling their usefulness as accessible nodes of knowledge.
The project unfolds in two stages. Initially, media education through documentary film courses are held for the librarians in each county. Then, guided by the trainers, participants apply the knowledge they have gained in order to organise film screenings and discussions for their libraries’ visitors, in the second stage.
The first course takes place on April 22 and 23 at the "Marin Preda" Teleorman County Library, located in Alexandria. All courses are led by journalist and film critic Ionuț Mareș and Nicoleta Fotiade, trainer in the field of media and digital education and the president of Mediawise Society.
Participants will develop a deeper understanding about documentaries, media education, human rights, propaganda, image representation, as well as how to organise an event with such topics at the library, including screenings and discussions with guests and audiences. Building upon the already developed curriculum, the trainers have crafted a course material covering these topics, aiming to demonstrate to librarians the potential of documentary film as a media tool to be used in debates.
A novelty this year is that the documentaries analysed by librarians as case studies and subsequently screened in the second stage are intended for multiple age groups. For adult and mixed audiences, Romanian documentaries: Between Revolutions by Vlad Petri; The Case of Engineer Ursu by Liviu Tofan and Șerban Georgescu; and Our School by Mona Nicoară and Miruna Coca-Cozma will be available. For younger audiences, we have prepared another novelty: for the first time, an international film, Expired (Norway, dir. Kieran Kolle) – addressing the issue of food waste, part of the KineDok catalogue in 2017 – 2018. As every year, short films from the Sahia Vintage selection will also be available for screenings: Adolescence (1970) by Florica and Paul Holban, and Journal No. 38 (JOURNAL 1000) (1966).
"We have great confidence that libraries can and should transform into cultural centres for the community, assist in developing media literacy for civic engagement, and contribute to understanding documentary film. We believe that the events organised by librarians in their communities, for audiences of all ages, encourage debate, critical analysis and reflection on topics of interest, such as equal opportunities and gender equality, racism, discrimination or environmental protection," say the two trainers, Nicoleta Fotiade and Ionuț Mareș.
Trainers:
Ionuț Mareș is a journalist and film critic and regularly writes about cinema for online magazines such as Films in Frame and Ziarul Metropolis. He is the artistic director of the Ceau, Cinema! Festival in Timișoara and the Romanian Film Days Festival in Chișinău, as well as the curator of the short film competitions (both Romanian and international) of the Anonimul International Independent Film Festival in Sfântu Gheorghe. He also collaborates as a discussion moderator with other Romanian film festivals such as TIFF and Les Films de Cannes à Bucharest. He has been a guest critic for the film education programs Education à l'image and CinEd. He graduated in Journalism-English at the West University of Timișoara and completed a Master's degree in Cultural Journalism at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences (FJSC) of the University of Bucharest.
Nicoleta Fotiade is a communication expert, as well as media and digital education trainer. Over the past 20 years, she has coordinated media education programs for non-governmental organizations from Romania and Europe. She has taught Media Education to Pedagogy students at the University of Bucharest and trains professors and librarians in order to include media education in their communities. Nicoleta is the co-author of several studies on media research and media education resources, including two high school textbooks. Furthermore, she is the president of the Mediawise Society association (mediawise.ro), as well as co-founder and president of the International Association for Media Education (iame.education). She has finished a Masters of Arts in Communication at the University of Westminster, London, UK.
ORGANISER
One World Romania Association
CULTURAL PROJECT CO-FINANCED BY
Administration of the National Cultural Fund
PARTNERS
Mediawise Society, KineDok România, “Ion Heliade Rădulescu” Dâmbovița County Library, “Ștefan Bănulescu” Ialomița County Library, “G.T. Kirileanu” Neamț County Library, “Marin Preda” Teleorman County Library
The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project, nor for the manner in which the results of the project might be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the grant.
