The Second Roma Heroes Storytelling Festival took place in May 2018 and it contributed to even more visibility of the values of Roma dramas and heroes. Eight new plays from seven countries were translated, performed, recorded and added to the existing educational material.
Emília Lovas (Hungary): Chameleongirl
- Studio focus scenes
- Interview with the lead actress, Emilia Lovas
- Interview with the director, Tamás Szegedi
Alex Fifea (Romania): You Didn’t See Anything!
- Studio focus scenes
- Personal interview
Nataliya Tsekova (Bulgaria): Gypsy Wheels
- Studio focus scenes
- Personal interview
Sonia Carmona Tapia (Spain): Profound Dignity
- Studio focus scenes
- Personal interview
Sebastian Spinella (Italy): Children of the Wind
- Studio focus scenes
- Personal Interview
Franciska Farkas (Hungary): Letter to Brad Pitt
- Studio focus scenes
- Personal interview
Michael Collins (Ireland): It’s a cultural thing. Or is it?
- Studio focus scenes
- Personal Interview
Richard O’Neill (UK): Today’s lesson
- Studio focus scenes
- Interview from the previous festival in 2017.
In 2018, the Roma Heroes workshops were run in 9 different cities, at 13 different host organisations, with a total 202 youngsters. Satisfaction rate was high: 94% of youngsters stated that they found the workshop interesting and 87% stated that they learnt many new things. The qualitative part of the evaluations highlighted the workshop’s contribution to awareness raising, changes in attitudes towards minorities and an increased will to become an active citizen. In addition to the workshops, 4 university seminars were held - at ELTE Institute for Art Theory and Media Studies, ELTE, TáTK, Cultural Anthropology Department, Pázmány Péter University, Film studies, Kepes György Special College Art and Culture Studies Department in Eger - introducing and deepening the topic in the formal education sector.
Moreover, all participants continued to make active use of the Roma Heroes Blog, which has become more and more community-based and community-led containing dozens of stories about everyday heroes of the participants. Thousands of people were reached by the blog entries.
Last but not least, Independent Theatre successfully bid for an ERASMUS+ tender making it possible to deliver the methodology across Europe in partnership with like-minded organisations, some of whom presented their art work at the previous Roma Storytelling Festivals.
