DIFFERENCES

At the film Sieranevada we can learn almost a normal day of a Romanian family. For me important are differences to e.g. Polish family, because living in Poland and in Romania deliver different challenges.

So we watch a family living in a big city, family members with different problems, from alcoholic to mental. For sure there are such families e.g. in Warsaw. But there is no rule about complexity of a family. So everything is possible.

The contrast between e.g. financial status of the mother and her son seams to be too big. Son called Lary is a well-off doctor. His mother lives in a flat in a very bad condition. Coming from a family from a town I can’t believe that parents of a doctor are so poor. But everything is possible.

SIMILARITIES

Nevertheless there were also some basic similarities between some family members in the film Sieranevada and in Poland. There are in both countries people who remember time till 1989 dolefully and they don’t accept the democratic system they live now. They are also non-believers sometimes. They struggle with the supporters of democracy. But this discussion seams to be not so strong for me.

Another topic of discussion of family members was terrorism. It’s more important for Polish people nowadays. No wonder. Looking at different terrorist attack in many cities and countries in Europe, we all discuss the danger of it for us. Even in Warsaw the so-called most safe capital in Europe.

PLOT OF SIERANEVADA

Three days after the terrorist attack on the offices of Parisian weekly Charlie Hebdo and forty days after the death of his father, Lary, a doctor in his forties is about to spend the Saturday at a family gathering to commemorate the deceased. But the occasion does not go according to expectations. Forced to confront his fears and his past, to rethink the place he holds within the family, Lary finds himself constraint to tell his version of the truth. [link to the source]

EASTERN/POLISH PERSPECTIVE

I asked myself if the film Sieranevada could be important for people from Eastern Europe and outside of it. I think, it’s interesting to see which perspectives of living have adults in Romanian cities.

It was important for me to see that the revolution of 1989 is still a topic in Romanian families and even family members don’t agree on the meaning of it for Romania. It’s interesting that people drink alcohol on family gathering to commemorate the deceased and they don’t eat any food till the prist is coming.

Still one similarity to Eastern Europe is important for me the economical growth of families and the region. Money is a key tool to be healthy what we see on Lary’s mother, who becomes medical stuff to be healthy.

Love and commiting adultery were another topics which made the film Sieranevada timeless.

Have you watched the film? What do you think about it?

So I add also a trailer that you will be more curious about it.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QElR86-l4nI[/embedyt]

And read here a diary from the 13th International MitOst Festival written by Olga Konovalova:

„An old green train #115O that passes daily through Lviv and goes to Ivano-Frankivsk, or Stanislau (an old name of the city which I like more). It goes slowly without stops through the villages, endless picturesque fields and dense forests as it gives time specially for enjoying the landscape. The train has its typical knock sound which I missed in European trains. I ask the train conductor to bring me glass of tea in metal glass-holder, which is possible to find only in trains of post-soviet countries. I was drinking sourse by source the tea, enjoying the landscape and thinking what is waiting on me at MitOst festival. I was going without any expectations or knowledge what is going to happen and looking forward to discover the city, the festival and organization itself.

***

Going out from the train station I got immediately lost and started to stray through the small streets with single-story and two-stored houses. For me this kind of housing almost in the center is odd. The appearance of the houses are city-like, but the number of storeys is typical of a small town or village. The city was living its usual life, it was calm. The atmosphere was still summer-like, sun was shining lazily through the trees, cats were warming themselves on the ground near the houses.

***

People were gathering in the auditorium of the cinema Lumier in the city center, monumental blue building in neoclassical style. The hall was full. Here I met people from everywhere: Georgia, Germany, Moldova, Holland and what I was not expecting: Australia and Siberia (Russia). All were very nice, open and friendly people. The opening of the festival was going to start. But meanwhile the fantastic melody by Petro Skazkiv was filling the hall with the sound. He played on the traditional Ukrainian musical instrument cymbals. I don’t know if he played it with his hands or the sound came directly from his heart.

***

At the opening Eszter Toth, the president of the organization, and Ivanka Chupak were telling about the activities of the organization, about the goals reached during the last year, idea to organize the festival in Ivano-Frankivsk, the intensive program that was waiting for us in the next 4 days and inviting to the microphone all the people that helped to organize the festival. And I remember that this evening I had my first thought to become MitOst member too. The opening was finished by a folk-rock band from Lviv Joryj Kłoc, where the irrepressible energy of Ukrainian soul united with rock rhythm.

***

The next days of the festival were very intensive and so full that I usually needed to choose between several workshops, lectures, films or performances. The festival was very many-sided. Ukrainian music was weaving with architectural workshop, important and serious now topic of migration with thrilling poetry by Yurko Izdruk, film about Alexander Granach with the Ukrainian dance workshop. All the events were in different places. The city was the starting point for all the events from the program. So even if you didn’t want to discover the city center for some reason, you had to.

***

Migration, boarders, dialog, participation, collaboration, active neighborhood… This were the main topics discussed at the festival. There were workshops, lectures and discussions to get the feel of them. People with different backgrounds met and collaborated together, giving the possibility to each other to see the subject from different perspectives.

Usually I was selecting the topics connected to participatory urban development. One of them was the workshop „Mobilizing Citizens for regional development”. It was lead by Anna-Dorothea Werner. She shared her experience about the project in rural development held by the state of Brandenburg (Germany). She told us about the main idea of the project, the process and  main challenges they had. We discussed how this idea could be implemented in other regions. For me it was very useful because I was researching the topic of the rural development for some time.

***

Cultural events were accurately inserted to the program. One of them was „Albert, or the highest form of the execution”. The auditorium became dark. On the stage there were 3 lightened silhouettes: a man in the white shirt: famous Ukrainian writer Yurii Andrukhovych, man with the contrabass, Mark Tokar and the young woman in black, Ulyana Gorbachevska. The drawings started to appear on the screen in the back of the stage, accompanied by music. And a mystical, fascinating journey to the life of the monk Albert Virozemsky started. It was the classical opposition of good and evil, black and white, religious and mystical. The story, the voice of Yurii, masterfully build semantic structures enchanted me in German even if  I don’t speak it properly. It was that kind of performances that leaves a tasteful flavor and internal joyfulness afterwards.

***

It were four intensive days, new connections, interesting events, autumnal Stanislau that’s what I experienced at MitOst festival. Maybe I would like the festival to be longer and with more intense and specific workshops, during which we can produce something durable for the city, where the festival is held.

See you at the 14th MitOst Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia!”

Olga Konovalova

On October, 24 they met in Warsaw (Museum of History of Polish Jews – Polin) at the 1st Meeting of Community Archives (www.archiwa.org).

Community archives exist also in different countries in the world. You can read about archives in Kanada, New Zeland, Italy, Germany, Great Britain and Poland here.

Photo: Warsaw University, Author: Nihil novi
Polish universities include research on community archives into study programmes and representatives of community archives are invited at universities, e.g. I was invited by a Polish professor of history to his seminar at the Warsaw University in May 2015. Beside that students chose to absolve their internships at community archives.

I. L’viv and Galicia – topic: relationships between nations, structures of power and stabilisation of power, culture and literature of borderland (part 1)

1. L’viv – politics of nations in relation to the city space on example of monuments, commemoration of the past, e.g. nostalgia and the Habsburg monarchy, nationalisation, Holocaust versus Holodomor

2. Żółkwia / Zowkwa – Jews and their place, „a private city” one of the biggest synagogs, conflict between aristocracy, nobility and peasants

3. Zadwórze / Zadwirja – battle against the Soviet army of Budionny on August, 17 (1920)

4. Olesko – castle of Johann III. Sobieski

5. Brody – Jewish culture and literature

II. Luzk and Wolhynia – commemoration of national conflicts

6. Luzk – former Polish regional center (Woiwode), counterpart of L’viv in the north?

7. Battlefields in Wolhynien

8. Poryck/Pawliwka – a Polish-Ukrainian monument of the massacre in 1943

9. Sokal – question of the artificial border (Kordon sokalski)

III. Galicia or East Central Poland and its blossoming

10. Drohobycz – Bruno Schulz and the three cities of Galicia

11. Boryslaw – industry and the three cities of Galicia

12. Truskavets – recreation area and the three cities of Galicia

13. Stryj – Jewish past and the monument of Stefan Bandera

14. Stanisławów / Iwano-Frankiwsk – former Polish regional center (Woiwode), counterpart of L’viv in the south?

IV. Bukowina and its memory of different occupying forces

15. Czerniowce / Czernowitz and its Austrian, Romanian and Sowjet past

16. Kamieniec Podolski / Kamjanez-Podilskyj – fortress from the 16th century

V. Galicia – culture and literature of the borderland (part 2)

17. Tschortkiw – Karl Emil Franzos

18. Tarnopol and its military and administrative meaning

19. Bereschany, Zolochiv / Złoczów as former Jewish cities

A recommended place to stay is by Iwano-Frankiwsk, in Bołszowce. It is a monastery, a center for the Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation.

(See: O. Halecki, The limits and divisions on European history, SheedCamp;Ward, New York 1950, p. 120).

Paul Robert Magocsi described the region as containing of 3 main zones: 1. northern zone, 2. Alpine-Carpathian zone and 3. Balkan zone. He refers to historical circumstances, e.g. including of non-existing states, as area of former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

There is also a proposal of institutions as United Nations, actually thr Group of Experts on Geographical Names, UNGEGN. It also defined the East-Central Europe.

Which concept is most attractive for you?

Poles and Hungarians shared rulers and faith. Common was also the Revolution of 1956, which was of course more tragic on the Hungarian side. More about Hungarian-Polish relations you can read in short here. On September, 10 in the Royal Castle in Warsaw Prof. Ignác Romsics from the History Institut of the Károly Eszterházy University in Eger will talked about Our place: Central Europe and / or Eastern Europe? (Nasze miejsce: Europa Środkowa i/lub Wschodnia?).

It’s also possible that the talk will be streamed online on wszechnica.org.pl. I will make here a summary of it. So wait for it

The talk is one of lectures related to history, politics and culture of Poland and Hungary.

There is a round at the Royal Castle dedicated to Polish-Hungarian historical, cultural and political relationships. Most of the presentations can be viewed online (in Polish).

Author of the flag picture: SKopp.

Source.

In March 2015 there was organised an event in Poznań about personal development, The Way Ahead. The „main” guest was Tony Robbins. I found it interesting but the fee was to high for me.

But some people went to the event. One of them was Laura M Kozowska (on the photo above), who after that became an author of the book „There is no such trouble, which can’t be solved” (Nie ma takiego bagna, z którego nie da się wyjść”. I will not tell you the story of Laura, but she is for sure an example of transformative storytelling and her story can be also a impulse for transformation of other people.

The second example is more close to me. A friend of mine after some years of working at an office of state administration quit the job and is looking for an other idea for her life. Because the friend came from a small city this decision was a kind of scandal in the community. But I know that the friend feels happier than before and she/he is looking for a new place in her life and I’m sure she/he will find it.

Why people don’t allow other people to take the responsibility for their life and criticise such brave decisions?

I can’t understand.

On the photo Tony Robbins. Author of the photo: Steve Jurvetson CC BY 2.0

These questions were the issuu of the conference and workshop „Learn – Do – Share”, on June, 24, 2015, in Warsaw. Read some insights of it.
Top of the top was the presentation of initiator of this event: Lance Weiler – http://bit.ly/lds2015.

Lance has shown us this storytelling & Internet project „Sherlock Holms” and named these

.
Some presenters talked about theoretical and practical concepts related to media:

– perceptive media – audience can influence the content, e.g. „Perceptive media Breaking Out”, see here: www.futurebroadcasts.com. The aim is to accept different versions, different narratives in the same „space”.

– transmedia storytelling means to integrate different media at one place, e.g. presentation, project. An example is a presentation which contains of audio and video podcast instead of text and photo.

Last but not least some networking projects:

– https://www.ethereum.org – alternative space for applications

– https://www.snapchat.com – a social platform for short docu-films

Social und media start-ups:

– Getifinity.com – application „Virtual Warsaw” for people with disabilities and cultural institutions

– Peeky: 1. Moments (postcrossing), 2. Living for the news, 3. Local info (geoquestions) (SaaS business model), 4. Click: click with your local businesses.

– Plan.es – Polish communicator – similar to Yik Yak application

The program and abstracts of the talks you will find here: http://learndoshare.net/.

It took place in Polish parlament in November’14, 28-29. 120 teachers and pupils took part on it. You also can do following things:

1. conduct a workshop about Karski,

2. organise a panel discussion about connecting historical and human rights education with representatives of ngo’s, administration and scientists,

3. organise an Open Space discussion related to the meaning of historical experiences in work against discrimination. You can discuss the interdisciplinary approach of connecting different fields.

Change is also a title of a book wich is being prepared by an international team of scientists in collaboration with practitioners of history education and human rights education. I will upload it here, when it will be finished in 2016.

Combing thes two fields was also the aim of the project „Education for human rights in the places of remembrance in the context of European crimes’ experiences”

It was a German-Russian-Polish project about teaching human rights and history at memorial sites. It take place from April till December 2014 in Perm (Russia), Bergen-Belsen (Germany) and Oświęcim (Poland).

The results of the project can be viewed and downloaded here.

Within the project I worked on learning modules related to the experience of crimes of Nazis and Soviet Union. My learning modul is dedicated co-workers of prisons.