Hey folks. I’m here in Bucharest, Romania on the jury of the Romania International Film Festival. I am part of a jury of two competitions — one is films from the Black Sea Region, and one is a competition of women directors. Very interesting, different kind of films. Most I would never see back in the States.

I want to give a shout out to the people organizing this festival especially the festival director Cornelia Palos because they have lost so much of their funding and they are carrying on despite the difficulties. Their motto this year is “reloaded” which signifies that they are here to stay even with the loss of funding.

Also on the my agenda is a meeting with some Romanian bloggers tomorrow. I’ll be writing more about the films in the coming days.

Here is their manifesto — I love their honesty!

Ro-IFF is organized under the High Patronage of the Romanian President and it is the only international film festival that, from the very beginning, looked towards the Black Sea region’s film industry (Russia, Moldavian Republic, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Romania). Ro-IFF is also the only festival focusing on the activity of women Directors in Cinema.

But the most important thing about the RO-IFF is its very existence, despite the ridiculous amount of increasingly reduced financing, which the National Centre of Cinematography CA approves for its production, and thus to promote film literacy and Romania’s image around the world. For the same reason, movie fans cannot enjoy free access to festival, as they did at the previous editions, nor can we submit as many films.

Even under these conditions, RO-IFF enjoys international recognition, which helped us to enjoy, this year as well, guests which are notable presences of world cinema, films and Oscar-winning directors.

This year, we will try to make a more visible festival, more alive, even if, for financial reasons, it will be a smaller one!

DO NOT BURY CULTURE!