Film-related Internship Opening:
Contact: mona.nicoara@gmail.com
Responsibilities:
* Design some of our marketing materials (we will need them over the next
couple months or so, as we will go to some of the bigger documentary film
markets – IFP and probably IDFA in the fall, but also Thessaloniki and
HotDocs – with the project);
* Assist with post-production – including with logging, organizing, and,
eventually, assistant editing for Jonathan Oppenheim;
* Do some web design for a film website,
against generous film credits and an opportunity to be, if they so wish,
involved in more aspects of the project. We value fresh heads that come into
the process.
Thanks for all the help,
Mona
[image: OUR SCHOOL 2 minute
trailer]<http://www.vimeo.com/1392777?pg=share_email&sec=1392777>
*OUR SCHOOL 2 minute trailer*
*Password:*
our school
*About this video:*
“Synopsis:
OUR SCHOOL follows the lives of Roma (“Gypsy”) and Romanian children over
two years as they are brought together by one of the first integration
experiments in Europe, conducted in a deeply segregated small town in the
Transylvania region of Romania. The film focuses on three Roma
schoolchildren – Alin, Beniamin and Dana – as they try to escape segregation
and find their way in a hostile Romanian school. Rejected by teachers, they
find strength and pride in the friendship of Romanian classmates.
Background:
The descendants of slaves freed in the nineteenth century, Romanian Roma
(“Gypsies”) have been suffering discrimination for centuries. In the last
century alone, they fell victims to the Holocaust, forced assimilation, and
pogroms.
In Romania, as elsewhere in Europe, Roma children learn in ghetto or even
special schools which offer substandard education, if any at all. But change
is afoot. In a landmark case similar Brown vs. Board of Education in the
United States, the European Court of Human Rights found segregated schooling
of Roma illegal. As a consequence, some schools have haltingly begun
integrating. The Targu Lapus experiment is one such attempt to do the right
thing in a deeply segregated town.
Style:
The vérité-style documentary takes a personal approach, presenting the lives
of Roma and Romanian children at school and at home from close up, in a
warm, intimate visual style. Shot on video in DVCam format by a small crew
led by a Romanian activist-filmmaker, the film draws on more than 100 hours
of unmediated, “fly-on-the-wall”-type footage and personal interviews with
the primary participants. The final feature-length version will be assembled
by Jonathan Oppenheim, an acclaimed US-based editor who has worked on
several award-winning vérité documentaries.
Filmmaking Team:
Mona Nicoară, Producer/Director
Mona Nicoară worked as an Associate Producer for CHILDREN UNDERGROUND (2001,
Dir./Prod. Edet Belzberg), a feature-length documentary about street
children in Romania, which received the Special Jury Prize at the 2001
Sundance Film Festival and a 2001 Academy Award nomination. Over the past
fifteen years, Mona Nicoară has worked with civil society groups in Central
and Eastern Europe, advocating for the rights of minorities.
Miruna Coca-Cozma, Co-Director/Associate Producer
A graduate of the BBC School of Journalism and of the Romanian Theatre and
Film Academy, Miruna Coca-Cozma has fifteen years of experience in
television journalism. She has made a number of television documentaries,
including a series of twenty episodes called LA SUISSE DE BATISSEURS for
Télévision Suisse Romande (2001), a short film on the Versailles equestrian
show led by Bartabas (2007), and a forthcoming one-hour documentary on the
Swiss-Colombian theatre director Omar Porras, also for Télévision Suisse
Romande (2008).
Ovidiu Mărginean, Director of Photography
Ovidiu Mărginean’s credits include THE GREAT COMMUNIST BANK ROBBERY (2004,
Dir. Alexandru Solomn) a feature-length documentary co-produced by BBC, ZDF,
Arte and France 2; THE GRANDPARENTS (2005, Dir. Ioana Joca), a short
documentary nominated for Best First-Time Director and Best New Work at
BAFTA Scotland; ADAM (2003, Dir. Ilinca Grădinaru), a short feature selected
for the Fifth Kodak Showcase in the Cannes Film Festival; the late director
Cristian Nemescu’s MIHAI AND CRISTINA (2001) and FOLKS IN HIGH-RISES ADORE
MUSIC TO DEATH (2000); and upcoming feature films TOWN CREEK (Dir. Joel
Schumacher) and BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE (Dir. Katja von Garnier).
Jonathan Oppenheim, Editor
Jonathan Oppenheim worked as an editor for acclaimed documentaries such as
STREETWISE (1984, Dir. Martin Bell), which was awarded the Special Jury
Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and was nominated for an Academy Award;
PARIS IS BURNING (1990, Dir. Jennie Livingston), awarded Best Documentary
Film at the Berlin Film Festival, the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film
Festival, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film
Critics Circle honors, as well as the International Documentary Association;
and SISTER HELEN (2002, Dir. Rebecca Cammisa and Rob Fruchtman), nominated
for an Emmy(R) and given the Director’s Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
Jonathan Oppenheim worked with Mona Nicoară while editing and co-producing
CHILDREN UNDERGROUND.
Expected release date: 2009
For more information:
mona.nicoara@gmail.com
www.myspace.com/ourschoolfilm”
