Thank you so much for taking a moment of your valuable time to listen to our story.
HOW DID THIS PROJECT START?
We travelled across the border between Turkey and Armenia, as we wanted to discover the different cultures and traditions held in those territories. Travelling slowly by land and in constant contact with people, enabled us to break down the distance that usually separates foreigners from locals.
Eyes and ambition focused on listening others, and a hitchhiked road trip. This way of looking at the world is what we wanted to share and the best way to do so has been the production of a small documentary, with the only pretension of offering the beauties that we found on the way and sharing the idea that a broadened mind can take you everywhere.
THE IMPACT
Our aim was to search for untold stories, and show how travelling is not only a pleasure, but also a fascinating way to discover cultures and have genuine encounters with the people met along the way. In doing so, we wanted to bring the viewers with us, and show how diplomacy and politics is often not representative of peoples’ views and lives.
We strongly acknowledge that this project was conducted by six Europeans that do not belong neither to the Armenian nor to the Turkish community. Thus, our understanding of these cultures and the relations between the two countries is filtered by our own cultures and identities. Seeing the limitations of our judgments we took the position of observers to now be able to share what we encountered on our journey. We let our way being guided little by little by the people we met, the stories they told and the places they talked us about.
Moreover, we believe that the opinions expressed in the movie cannot give a holistic view; yet, we have tried to include the polyphony that emerged. We hope that this documentary can be a starting point as to allow space for debate and dialogue.
CROWDFUNDING
We want to bring this documentary to film festivals and create a travelling exhibit with pictures and installations. The funding will be used for printing, creating the installation and rent spaces for screenings in different countries.
If you cannot make a contribution, you can always share this link on your social media pages and help us to share our project around the globe!
WHO WE ARE
Maggie Barlow (Italy)
Maggie studied economics in Italy and Istanbul, with a focus on international development in the Middle East. After many years of combining studies with volunteering, in particular with refugees, she has been working in Lebanon, in a Palestinian refugee camp and with migrant workers victims of trafficking. She is now pursuing her Master’s degree at the London School of Economics in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies. In her free time she has always tried to combine her passions of travelling, hitchhiking and photography.
Ángela Calvo (Spain)
Ángela Calvo is an architect from the ETSA Madrid. She has long been interested in traditions, concerning dance: Ballet Folcórcico de Madrid, music and vernacular architecture all fields in which she is invested. From the beginning she diversified from her studies, taking part in different projects such as the realization of Bellastock Madrid [madstck.wordpress.com], an autoconstruction festival which aim is to experiment building an ephemeral city; the experimental editorial group 255 [doscincocinco.daetsam.es] a publication within the school of architecture of which she’s editor; her music studies of flute, chorus and different traditional instruments as well as various courses and seminars of vernacular architecture: Terrachidia Architecture and earth construction workshop in Mhamid, Morocco. She’s now doing her final thesis and project at ETSAM, an investigation on how to regenerate a traditional industrial neighbourhood in Madrid while she works in an international investigation project on craftsmanship in Spain.
Diane Lentin (France)
Diane Lentin is a French photographer and videast. She studied in the School of Art and Design of Saint-Etienne. Her work deals with suspended spaces, and how to react in the transition spaces or periods. She realized different photography projects about borders, urbanism transformations and places in transition. While working in this kind of spaces and with the people she meets, she tries to think how to occupy and react into the moment itself, instead of waiting for everything going back to stability.
Dorota Ros (Poland)
Dorota Roś was studying as an exchange student at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul and made few documentary shorts. Currently she is enrolled in National Polish Lodz Film School at the editing department. She likes grapefruit and canoeing
Andres Vidal Hortal (Spain)
Andres is a North Spanish villager who studied Chemical Engineer to finally end up realizing that had political and social concerns...even feelings. After working in some humanitarian aid missions, he decided to further his formation and continue working in this field while combining it with local activism, hitchhiking trips, farming and collaborating in social-art projects as the one here we present.
Denis Ünver (Germany)
Denis is a Turkish-German plant based enthusiast. After graduating from Technische Universität Berlin in Industrial Chemical Engineering he has been working in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector in Kyrgyzstan and Mexico for the last two years. When not gardening he loves to sing in a choir and to engage in local activism.