THE DACIANS IN DOCUMENTARY FILM
PANEL DISCUSSION AT ASTRA FILM FESTIVAL SIBIU 2012
The International Documentary Film Festival ASTRA FILM FESTIVAL SIBIU presents a special program dedicated to films and debate sessions. This edition’s topic of discussion is the Romanian historical documentary, with a focus on the presence of the Dacians in this type of films, and on how historical data are interpreted and transmitted through documentary film. The debate will be based on three documentary films, that have been completed this year, dedicated to Dacia and the history of the Romanian people: Draco – the Stone Faces, Dacians – Unsettling Truths and Decoding Dacia: Romania`s Lost Heritage. One of these films, Dacians – Unsettling Truths, has been published on YouTube and has reached a record number of over 800,000 views, showing a definite interest in the topic of this film, both from those attempting to do research in this field, and from the wide audience. With approaches that are either unique or classical, from a historian’s or a filmmaker’s point of view, the films try to decode the way history is portrayed from different perspectives in documentary film, starting from the historian and director all the way to the viewer, redrawing the much-debated line between the director’s intent, scientific objectivity and the audience’s expectations. The difficulties faced by the producers are even greater when they want to show things from the past that are related to present-day national identities. The debate will focus on targets and to what extent they have been reached, on the means used, on the connection between the knowledge offered to the audience, the knowledge based on scientific evidence, and common knowledge spread through the education system and mass media, myths or pseudo-scientific speculation.
The screenings will be followed by a discussion panel moderated by historian and archaeologist Gheorghe Alexandru Niculescu, researcher, the Archeology Institute „Vasile Pârvan”.
Special program THE DACIANS IN DOCUMENTARY FILM will take place Saturday, 20th of October from 11:00 - 15:00 in Mircea Săucan Hall.