1st & 2nd edition of Brave Festival

The first Brave Festival, called “Magic Voices”, was held in November 2005. It featured artists from Tuva, Congo, Khakassia, Ukraine, Irkutsk, Turkey, and Poland, who presented original voices, sounds and poetry of the worlds and cultures which are vanishing and fading into the past. The program also included photography exhibitions and a series of screenings of Jacek Petycki’s movies, “Reporter’s Courage”. In addition, the guest artists gave workshops in throat singing and playing traditional instruments. Although the festival was held for the first time, it received support from many institutions, including the President of Wroclaw, Rafal Dutkiewicz, and the Polish UNESCO Committee, as well as the local and national media.

It was the first time the festival presented awards. The Brave Awards were given in recognition of the courage in preventing cultures from being forgotten or bringing them back to memory and life.

The jury comprised:
– Bozena Muszkalska, ethnomusicologist
– Jacek Dobrowolski, theater critic
– Ireneusz Guszpit, theater expert
– Stanisław Krotoski, director of the Center of Research in Jerzy Grotowski’s Work and Theater and Culture Experiments in 1991-2004.

Brave Festival First Award went to the Irkutsk Authentic Music Ensemble in recognition of the courage in reconstructing the lost music. The jury also awarded three honorable mentions:
– to Alash, Tuva – for creative continuation of tradition,
– to the Haig Yazdjian Oriental Project – for the courage in combining Armenian Christian music and Middle Eastern Muslim music,
– to Zhar, Moscow – for the courage in being natural.


2005 FESTIVAL PROGRAM

CONCERTS, DRAMA:
Concert: Flying Music: Concerto for Voice and Bells, Llorenc Barber, Spain
Concert: Amelia Cuni, Werner Durand, Italy/Germany
Concert: DahaBraha, Ukraine
Concert: Ayarhaan, Yakutia
Concert: Alash, Tuva,
Concert including a dance show: Unknown Sources of European Music and Dance: Ancient Greece, CHOREA Theater Association, Gardzienice, Poland
Concert: Irkutsk Ensemble of Authentic Music, Irkuck
Concert: Haig Yazdjian Oriental Project, Armenia/Greece/Iran
Concert: Sergei Tcharkov, Yulia Tcharkova, Khakassia
Drama: Macbeth–Prologue, Center for Contemporary Art DAKH, Ukraine
Drama: Third Eye, Abdon Fortuné Koumbha, Congo
Concert: Cheynesh Baytushkina, Altai
Drama: Gurbet (work in progress), the adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear, Ayna, Centre of Theatrical Researches, France/Turkey
Dramatized concert: For Thirty-Three Years Yuriushka Was a Soldier, Zhar, Moscow
Drama: Gospels of Childhood, ZAR Theater, Wroclaw, Poland
Drama: Lacrimosa, Song of the Goat, Wroclaw, Poland
Closing concert: Voices of the Voice II, Fatima Miranda, Spain


MOVIES:
Movie series: "Reporter’s Courage – Jacek Petrycki”
The Mission by Clive Gordon, 1996
Dites a mes amis que je suis morte by Nino Kirtadze, 2001
The Unforgiving by Clive Gordon, 1993
The Betrayed by Clive Gordon, 1995
Voices of the Sierra Tarahumara
Latcho Drom by Tony Gatlif

WORKSHOPS:
Indian dhrupad singing, Amelia Cuni
Throat singing (for men) or Khakassian instruments (1), Sergei Tcharkov
Throat singing (for women) or Khakassian dance (1), Yulia Tcharkova
Local cultures. Throat singing. Cheynesh Baytushkina, Altai
Tuva traditional instruments, Alash
Yakutia traditional instruments, Ayarhaan
Phenomena of traditional musical culture and how to use them for music therapy in modern cities, Irkutsk Ensemble

ACCOPMANYING EVENTS:
Discussion with cameraman Jacek Petrycki
Meeting with artists: Sergei and Yulia Tcharkov
Meeting with artists: Cheynesh Baytushkina and Irkutsk Ensemble
Meeting with artists: Ayarhaan, Yakutia
Accompanying choir: Oktoich Choir
Exhibition of photography by Magda Podsiadlo, “The Tellers”

The second Brave Festival was held in summer 2006, July 8–15. During 8 days and nights we presented “Asian Voices” including artists from Laos, Sri Lanka, Russia, China, Korea, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. The festival also featured 16 fascinating documentaries and, like in the previous year, workshops and exhibitions.

The number of the festival’s honorary patrons was extended to include the Minister of Culture, Kazimierz Ujazdowski.
Festival events were watched by two juries. Theatrical performances and concerts were judged by:

– David Sefton, director of UCLA, one of the largest drama festivals in the US
– Joanna Klass, theater manager and the artistic director of Arden 2, a California-based association for international cultural exchange
– Eran Baniel, Israeli theater director and TV producer
- Slawomira Zeranska-Kominek, a music anthropologist and professor at the Warsaw University’s Institute of Musicology
The jury awarded honorable mentions to two groups: Uch-Sume-R from Khakassia, for passion and charisma, and Gamelan Asmaradana, for the courage to embrace both tradition and modernity.
The movie jury composed of:
– Krzysztof Kopczynski, a movie producer, lecturer at Warsaw University, and
– Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz, a movie director,
awarded A State of Mind, a movie about modern North Korea, directed by the British director Daniel Gordon.

We sold several thousand tickets and the theaters were full. This was important for us, as proceeds from the sale of tickets benefited Rokpa, an international organization operating in places such as Tibet, where it rebuilds Tibetan culture and helps children retain their own language, songs and dances.

“Asian Voices” received wide local and national media coverage. In recognition of the festival’s uniqueness, Lower Silesian journalists gave it the Wroclaw Theater Award for the most promising artistic event in the region.


2006 FESTIVAL PROGRAM


CONCERTS, DRAMA:
Concert: Drowned Songs, Irkutsk Ensemble of Authentic Music, Russia
Dance theater: Phalak Phalam, Phalak Phalam Vientiane, Laos
Concert: Akh Taskhyllar, Uch-Sume-R, Russia (Khakassia)
Drama: Up Country and Low Country Kandyan Dance and Drum, Peter Surasena Dance and Drum Ensemble, Sri Lanka
Drama: A Dream of Butterfly, TiAT MOO, Korea
Drama: The Maids, Stage Pungkyung, Korea
Concert: Sounds of New Asia: From the Traditional to the Contemporary
Gamelan Asmaradana, Singapore
Dance show: Body Water 70%, Taipei Dance Circle, Taiwan
Concert: Japanese Taiko Drumming Performance, Joji Hirota and the Taiko Drummers, Japan
Concert: Amen, Noirin Ni Riain and A. M. E. N., Ireland
Drama: Chronicles: A Lamentation and Lacrimosa, Song of the Goat, Wroclaw

MOVIES:
Movie series: “Reporter’s Courage II – Jacek Petrycki”
The Homecoming by Archie Baron, UK 1995
The Pipeline Next Door by Nino Kirtadze, France 2005
Secret History: Unquiet Graves by Tom Roberts, UK 1991
Golden Lotus. The Legacy of Bound Feet by Joanne Cheng, China 2005
Children of Leningradzki by Hanna Polak, Poland 2005
Mama’s Gold: The Orphans of Shangri-La by Joanne Cheng, China/US 2003
A State of Mind by Daniel Gordon, UK 2003
China Gold Rush by Joanne Cheng, China 2000
The Play is On... by Pankaj Rishi Kumar, India 2000
Born into Brothels by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, India/US 2004
Ashura by Elpida Skoufalou, Greece 2006
Untamagiru by Takamine Go, Okinawa 1989
The Boatman by Yao Song Ping, China 2004
Pagentry by V. Sasikumar, India 2003
Yao Songs in Remote Mountains by Yao Song Ping, China 2001
Folk Bengal by Bappa Sen, India 2001

WORKSHOPS:
Cross-Cultural Documentaries, Joanne Cheng, China/US
Traditional Sri Lankan dance and instruments, Peter Surasena Dance and Drum Ensemble, Sri Lanka
Traditional Lao dance, Phalak Phalam Vientiane, Laos
Filmmaking, “Let’s pretend this is a movie,” Jacek Petrycki

ACCOMPANYING EVENTS:
Discussion panel: Hanna Polak, co-director of the movie Children of Leningradzki, Maria Zmarz- Koczanowicz, a movie director, Krzysztof Kopczynski, a movie producer
Lecture: “Order in disorder: the influence of dance and movement on the signs and meanings of time in art”, Katarzyna Dreszer
Lecture: Bozena Rubczynska, “Magical sounds”
Concert: Yerba Mater, Poland
Concert: Majowe Byki, Poland
Exhibition of prints, “Meanings resulting from movement: Indonesia,” Katarzyna Dreszer