Interview with a Verzio Volunteer

Editorial note: unfortunately we published a wrong version of the present interview in the printed copies of Issue 39. The editorial council is sorry for this. Here is the good version authorized by the interviewee.

CEU Weekly caught up with a CEU student last week to find out how she is helping with the Verzio Film Festival. This year, Silvija Bumbak, from the History department, is a student jury member for Verzio.

TCW: What are you doing for Verzio?

Silvija: I am one of the five student jury members. There are around 60 films coming from all over the world being shown in Verzio Film Festival, which is experiencing its 10 year anniversary this year. As jury members, our job is to look at 13 human rights films that have been pre-selected and are competing for International Panorama award. Basically, we watch the films (either in the cinema or in The Open Society Archives), discuss them, select the best human rights documentary film, and write a statement with the reasons for our final decision. The prize sum we are awarding is 100,000 HUF, and the winner is announced at the closing ceremony on Sunday. The criteria we set, before we started watching the films, concentrates primarily on the originality/novelty of film’s idea, film’s expressive power, how successful the filmmakers are in conveying the intended message (i.e. in presenting a certain issue of human rights), or whether they chose the right approach to address the problem. In addition, we will consider the impact of the film's message and its broader relevance as well as the technical aspects of the film (camerawork sound, the editing, format, directorial style etc).

TCW: How are you finding the experience?

Silvija:I am definitely enjoying this activity, although an experience of this type of formal evaluation and participating in a jury is rather new to me. It can get a bit hectic, given the number of films we are supposed to view and judge in a limited amount of time, but so far, I am finding it beneficial for improving both argumentative and critical skills combined with the productive, interactive environment through the meetings and discussions with my colleagues. It is nice to be engaged collectively in something all of us take pleasure in. I have not been particularly involved with documentaries before either, so it is a different genre to explore and discuss. Plus, being jury members means free entrance to the movies, which is something one certainly would not complain about.

TCW: What do you think about the Verzio film festival?

Silvija:As I mentioned, I have not previously been so engaged with documentary films. However, I could say, after watching 3 or 4 of them per day, I have developed a somewhat altered standpoint on the whole idea of documentaries. One can feel the weight and seriousness of the issues being presented, and gain a sense of authenticity (though of course, some documentaries are in some ways more staged and prepared than the others). Also, documentary films could be put ahead of other genres in the aspect of their potential for presenting today’s problems and raising universal awareness. Verzio film festival, with its international character and rich diversity of topics it includes, offers its visitors an opportunity of viewing the documentaries to which one would not otherwise be able to access easily. Finally, I would highly encourage other students to apply for jury members next year, and, of course, invite them to check out the films on this year’s repertoire.

Interview by Imogen Bayley, New Zealand, History