- Occupation
Producer, Director - Country
Romania
Georgescu Razvan
Testimony
When the clock starts ticking, what really matters? When death is at hand or the body disabled, what happens to creativity? Diagnosed with a brain tumour and with three more years to live, the Romanian-born director, Razvan Georgescu (38), takes issue with a tricky social taboo. The filmmaker sets out to explore the realm between life and death, in search of some of its most famous inhabitants. He meets world famous artists willing to talk candidly about their own terminal illness or their traumatic brush with mortality. Can death and disability be a motor for creativity? Can creativity armour us against oblivion or surrender? Razvan Georgescu gets intriguing answers. The film starts on an operating table in Germany and follows the filmmaker on a very personal journey along Venetian canals, down Broadway, up Sunset Boulevard, coming full circle to Romania. Arresting, unsettling and surprisingly humorous, ‘Testimony’ rides a rollercoaster of emotions, in a series of encounters with artists hoping to stand the test of time: Jörg Immendorff, the painter (+2008), Bill Viola, the videoartist, Katherine Sherwood, the painter, Peter Jecza, the sculptor, William Filnn, the Broadway musical composer. TESTIMONY is a film about finding beauty in the face of death, about the healing qualities of art. A road movie full of twists and turns that took three years to complete. It’s not about watching the body surrender to disease. It’s a film about life before death and against all odds. It will make you think and it will make you laugh TESTIMONY is a film about finding beauty in the face of death, about the healing qualities of art. A road movie full of twists and turns that took three years to complete. It’s not about watching the body surrender to disease. It’s a film about life before death and against all odds. It will make you think and it will make you laugh.
Children of the Decree
Having children is the social obligation of all fertile women. This was the political view of the Romanian Communists, a view that was sealed in 1966 by Ceaucescu’s decree no. 770, which outlawed abortion. Also banned were all forms of contraception, and thousands of women died from undergoing illegal abortions. The demographic shape of the state changed within several years, children became the material of the totalitarian regime, which in various and often aggressive ways attempted to mould them.
When the clock starts ticking, what really matters? When death is at hand or the body disabled, what happens to creativity? Diagnosed with a brain tumour and with three more years to live, the Romanian-born director, Razvan Georgescu (38), takes issue with a tricky social taboo. The filmmaker sets out to explore the realm between life and death, in search of some of its most famous inhabitants. He meets world famous artists willing to talk candidly about their own terminal illness or their traumatic brush with mortality. Can death and disability be a motor for creativity? Can creativity armour us against oblivion or surrender? Razvan Georgescu gets intriguing answers. The film starts on an operating table in Germany and follows the filmmaker on a very personal journey along Venetian canals, down Broadway, up Sunset Boulevard, coming full circle to Romania. Arresting, unsettling and surprisingly humorous, ‘Testimony’ rides a rollercoaster of emotions, in a series of encounters with artists hoping to stand the test of time: Jörg Immendorff, the painter (+2008), Bill Viola, the videoartist, Katherine Sherwood, the painter, Peter Jecza, the sculptor, William Filnn, the Broadway musical composer. TESTIMONY is a film about finding beauty in the face of death, about the healing qualities of art. A road movie full of twists and turns that took three years to complete. It’s not about watching the body surrender to disease. It’s a film about life before death and against all odds. It will make you think and it will make you laugh TESTIMONY is a film about finding beauty in the face of death, about the healing qualities of art. A road movie full of twists and turns that took three years to complete. It’s not about watching the body surrender to disease. It’s a film about life before death and against all odds. It will make you think and it will make you laugh.
Children of the Decree
Having children is the social obligation of all fertile women. This was the political view of the Romanian Communists, a view that was sealed in 1966 by Ceaucescu’s decree no. 770, which outlawed abortion. Also banned were all forms of contraception, and thousands of women died from undergoing illegal abortions. The demographic shape of the state changed within several years, children became the material of the totalitarian regime, which in various and often aggressive ways attempted to mould them.
Odessa
Florin Iepan embarks on a process to reveal the largest mass execution perpetrated by an ally of Nazi Germany in Odessa (now Ukraine) which should lead to a public debate about Romania’s fascist past and conclude with an official reaction on behalf of the Romanian people. At first hand, this seems to be an impossible mission. In a story full of spectacular turn of events, with the director in front of the camera, we discover his weaknesses, his doubts, the self-irony, the ups and downs of his campaign. Unorthodox measures are employed in order to put the topic on the public agenda. During four years of conferences, news coverage, TV programmes and internet commentaries, Florin Iepan managed to attract hostility and hatred from thousands of Romanians and from public figures known for their anti-Semitic and nationalist opinions. At the same time he is encouraged by other fellow Romanians who understand that if we don’t act now, when the country faces an economic crisis and a weak democracy, history can repeat itself.
Florin Iepan embarks on a process to reveal the largest mass execution perpetrated by an ally of Nazi Germany in Odessa (now Ukraine) which should lead to a public debate about Romania’s fascist past and conclude with an official reaction on behalf of the Romanian people. At first hand, this seems to be an impossible mission. In a story full of spectacular turn of events, with the director in front of the camera, we discover his weaknesses, his doubts, the self-irony, the ups and downs of his campaign. Unorthodox measures are employed in order to put the topic on the public agenda. During four years of conferences, news coverage, TV programmes and internet commentaries, Florin Iepan managed to attract hostility and hatred from thousands of Romanians and from public figures known for their anti-Semitic and nationalist opinions. At the same time he is encouraged by other fellow Romanians who understand that if we don’t act now, when the country faces an economic crisis and a weak democracy, history can repeat itself.
Best TV documentary PRIX EUROPA 2008 for “Testimony”. Razvan worked as a director and producer of several documentaries for ARTE (‘Themenabende’ and single documentaries) and for ZDF. Before founding the production Romanian company PELEGRIN FILM in 2006 he has been Creative Director at WESTEND Film & TV Frankfurt am Main for 6 years and programme editor in charge of several editions per year of the cultural programme “METROPOLIS” on ARTE (on behalf of ZDF). He attended together with the Romanian director Florin Iepan the DISCOVERY CAMPUS MASTERSCHOOL with the project “Children of the Decree”, also master course at BBC (Laurence Rees, Specialist Factual Unit) and at Ten Alps (Brian Lapping), London.
Filmography: Children of the Decree (2004) producer, screenwriter Testimony (2008) writer,director, producer
Pelegrin Film s.r.l.
Str. Colonel Enescu 14
Timisoara
Str. Colonel Enescu 14
Timisoara
Phone:
+40 256 201 913
Sub-Cult-Ura Production
Str. Tudor Vladimirescu nr. 65
307160 Dumbravita, Timis
Str. Tudor Vladimirescu nr. 65
307160 Dumbravita, Timis
Beyond Borders - New Horizons in the East: Symposium - 2003
Docu Talents From the East 2007 - 2007