73 minutes, Romania, 2008. Copyleft.
By Joanne Richardson (jori@riseup.net)
A D Media Production (www.dmedia.ro)

“It was the beginning or middle of 2007. We traveled  across Romania, to make a film about activism. Who is this we? The obvious beginning would be to confess our ideologies. But the obvious is always too simple. You wanted to make an archive of activism, an objective document. My motivation was more subjective. It began from a failure. A 5 year failure of activism. I wanted to believe the failure was not mine, but the failure of the context.” (voiceover) Two or Three Things about Activism is a counter-documentary about present day activism in Romania and its historical context. The video uses the conventions of documentary in order to disrupt them. While 13 different groups – from anarchists to NGOS - discuss their views on activism, the voiceover reflects on the motivations behind the video. Two or three things is based on a distinction made by Godard between making a political film (a film about a political struggle) and making film politically. Making film politically means questioning the dominant forms of producing images and sounds and one’s own complicity in this system. It also means provoking the audience to reflect on their own position vis a vis power. Two or three things begins with a richness of sound and image, immersing the viewer in the stories of  Romanian activists, but becomes increasingly more bare and fragmented, preventing an easy identification. The form contributes to the goal: in a Romanian context in which activism is weak and made up of isolated groups, the video hopes to become a tool for self-reflection, asking activists to see their own position from the point of view of the others. It doesn’t represent Romanian activism, but tries to intervene in it from the inside, to provoke change.

In cooperation with RAW.