Rolling Docs Travelling Documentary Film Festival
Aleksandra Nikolova and Aurelija Uzunova are two graduating seniors from the American University in Bulgaria who have created a travelling documentary film festival, called Rolling Docs. The festival takes place every Saturday in five different small towns and villages (Belitsa, Garmen, Kurtovo Konare, Bozhuriste, and Dobrinishte) from March 16 to April 13. All showcased movies demonstrate the Bulgarian culture and history.
The idea behind the project was born when the girls visited an open-air music festival in Dojran, Macedonia, a small village right next to the Greek border where Aurelija originally comes from.
“By chance we stumbled upon a screening of a documentary film in an empty church. By that time we were third-year students and Leli suggested doing something similar for our Capstone Project. And so, we decided to do Rolling Docs,” Aleksandra says.
Ever since then, Aleksandra and Aurelija have been contacting film directors, professors, and former students to arrange the whole program. In regard to the making process, Aleksandra reveals: “When you start, there are a lot of minor details that you don’t pay attention to and then, you realize that you have to subtitle the movies and think about how to do the posters. However, things that you cannot control like sound problems may also happen, and you have no other option but to let them go.”
Two of the movies that the girls have chosen to screen are senior projects and the others are from small productions with experienced directors.
“You can definitely see the difference but, for documentary movies, that’s not important. It doesn’t change the meaning. If the movie is planned and well executed, the visuals don’t play much of a role,” Aurelija says.
Besides contacting people, both girls have managed to contact also many local chitalishta (cultural centers) to provide visual and sound equipment as well as a venue to screen the documentaries.
According to Aleksandra, “The ladies that work in the chitalishta are constantly trying to engage people from the villages. They like having all kinds of events and being hosts not only for children but for adults as well.”
An interesting fact about the two places where the screenings were done is that only women appeared to the event. “Except for Aleks’ father and other people that we dragged into the event, not a single male from the village voluntarily came,” Aurelija says.
When it comes to overall impression of the whole project, both girls agree that it takes tremendous effort and one should really love it to make it happen.
For more information about Rolling Docs, you can visit the official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Rolling-Docs-Traveling-Documentary-Film-Festival-374410620045972/
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Dessislava Lozanova is double majoring in Business Administration and Journalism and Mass Communication at AUBG. One of her favorite quotes is “It’s not about what the world has to offer you, but what you have to offer the world”.
