In 2021, for many countries around the world, women’s bodies are still a battlefield – they are not given access to contraception methods, abortion is banned, and there is no sex education, nor campaigns meant to inform them about their sexual and reproductive rights. Romania is one of those countries. In the last 10 years, women and teenagers didn’t have access to free contraception anymore, and many of the family planning clinics have closed. The access to abortion is not prohibited, nor is it easy to come by, for that matter: during the state of emergency (March 15 – May 15, 2020), only 11 hospitals in the country still performed terminations of pregnancy, none of which in Bucharest (the FILIA Center, 2020.)

The colour of one’s skin, one’s ethnicity, sexual identity, or social status define and redefine identities, they group and split women in various spaces: those of gadjos, Roma people, the LGBT community, poor people etc. What do the experiences of queer women and Roma women about the ”worlds” they navigate and with which they intersect tell us? Why do we need to incorporate the experiences of women who deal with multiple forms of discrimination and stigmatization? Do we need activism and intersectional feminism? How do we include more diversity, equality, and social justice in various movements?

These are some of the questions which our guests will try to answer by telling us about how the world looks like through their eyes as women, queer women, Roma women.

Hi, hello, greetings!

Who are we?

We are the Educational Centre of the PerformativeArts CEVA, CEVA from community, education, what lies ahead and art. WE are some teenagers from Târgu Neamț and its surroundings. There’s also Colea, our colleague from the Moldavian Republic. Our town resides at the foot of the Neamț’s Citadel,with Ozana here, really close. Târgu Neamț is a town full of stories that we want to tell.

WE talk about our community and about what interests us, topics which appear in all teenage conversations. WE want to make a change with our something, discover as much as we can, feel good with ourselves and those around us.

About our performance

“You know that if it was meant to be,

It wouldn’t have been a song”

Isn’t it so? If it were to have been, it wouldn’t have been as it is now. To be more precise, we are referring, firstly, to all that happens around us and today’s problems: people who judge excessively, bullying, racism, the loss of humanity, the chase after money, after the perfect job, gossip at every corner, and so on. So, if all of these hadn’t been and we would have lived in a perfect pink background world, we wouldn’t have asked ourselves millions of questions and we wouldn’t have had this wish to change something. We believe that, in the end, society’s imperfection brought something good among us as well.

Sometimes our curiosity cracks.

It’s exhausting to keep wondering where you’ll be, what you will be and how… Along our long discussions filled with endless sentences about the past,present and future, we planned out a... Futuristic performance, in which we voice our concerns, but not by crying and whimpering, but more so enjoying ourselves. It’s something with #hip hip hooray. And be warned! this isn't only about teenagers, it’s about all those who have questions.

we will ask ourselves once more, 

Alexandra, Bianca, Colea, Mara, Miru, Mișa, Raluca, Tatiana

We propose a discussion where we reflect upon the practices that are meant to improve the gender balance and representation in the film and theatre industry – from taking concrete steps in education (both formal and informal) to fostering gender equality across such areas as festival curation, the production chain, film and theatre criticism, decision-making and more. We invite our panel guests to consider how the local industry could become more inclusive, accessible and safer from a gender perspective; how we can empower the voices of marginalised groups and raise awareness among film and theatre practitioners, stakeholders, as well as the audience.

Guests: Alexandra Diaconu, Katia Pascariu, Lucia Chicoș, Mihaela Michailov, Raluca Durbacă.

 The discussion will be moderated by Ioana Diaconu and Georgiana Vrăjitoru (F-Sides)