Alternative Cinema has organized a summer school which lasted from 2nd July until 6th August 2014. From the beginning of the project, two actors with little experience in film industry, but with a desire to learn and grow, have involved themselves actively – Dana Ciobanu and Alex Rusu. They were the actors who played in every film exercise during the workshops. Otherwise, signing up for this courses was open for anybody interested. The persons who signed up for directing were Călin Laur, Tcaci Dumitru, Cristian Madan and Denis Croitoru. For the job of the director of photography signed up Olga Lucovnicova, and cameramen were Alexandru Antoniu and Denis Croitoru. Most of them were students from the national Academy of Arts. The process of filming was open for anybody to come and watch.

All the courses were guided by Dumitru Grosei – experienced director and Gheorghe Grâu, old actor also very experienced in the Film Industry.

This summer school was weekly based. As work and study material were the films of American independent director John Cassavetes. During the debate between directors and actors, fragments of up to 5 minutes from the chosen films have been extracted, with only 2 characters – he and she. All characters in all the fragments have been played by Dana Ciobanu and Alexandru Rusu and refilmed in a minimalist environment by the novice directors and cameramen.

This summer school has had no budget whatsoever, so this project was possible only with the support of:

Ginta Latină Theater (all the exercises were filmed on the same stage, with a minimalist set)

National Library (they have offered us the Conference Room, where we screened and reviewed publicly what we’ve filmed)

Technical provision / equipment

– Ion Usatâi

– Denis Croitoru (Pro Video Studio)

 Xenia Bucuci (Lucru Manual Moldova)

The final and unexpected result was the Echoes short film which was created in the editing room combining all the workshops’ exercises. More details here

The remade fragments were from the films:

Shadows (1959)

Faces (1968)

Minnie and Moskowitz (1971)

A Woman under the Influence (1974)

Photos from the workshops

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