Family Matters: Generational Differences and Ways of Life
The discussion involves three filmmakers who share a common focal point of generational responses to intimate family situations. Ronja Hemm, the director of For Your Own Sake, will recall how she found her subject in Nepal and how she was able to approach the sisters who left their home village to study in Japan. Akshaya Sawant, the director of Talking to the Wind, deals with the relationship between the ecological and social crisis in India in her film, and will talk about the issues related to following the everyday lives of rural families and communities. Paweł Chorzępa, the director of Sonny, will discuss how he came into contact with and befriended the son of alcoholics who was raised in state care, and how he shot the documentary tracing the relationship between the child and his father.
Moderator: Balázs Varga, film critic, lecturer, ELTE BTK Film Studies Department
The discussion is in English.
Paweł Chorzępa is a Polish director and cinematographer who has worked as a director of cinematography for documentary and feature films. Sonny is his directorial debut.
Ronja Hemm grew up in Bamberg, and studied time-based media at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz. During her studies she devoted herself mainly to documentary formats. The documentary For Your Sake is her graduation film.
Akshaya Sawant is a multimedia artist from Mumbai, India, who focuses on the human experience as knitted in the web of gender, culture and traditions. She has a bachelor's degree in fine arts, with a major in painting. She is a Dean's Fellow and received her MFA from Emerson College, Boston, in May 2019. Her first feature documentary, Talking To The Wind, received the Virgin Unite Social Impact Film Fund (2017, 2018), and won the Platinum Remi Award in the social/economic films category at the 53rd WorldFest Houston International Film Festival.
