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Gestures of Resistance

Gestures of Resistance connects the personal testimonies of some of the last survivors of the Holocaust from Romania, Czech Republic and Slovakia through their presentations of antifascist resistance - chapter 1: Armed Resistance, chapter 2: Civil/Political Resistance, chapter 3: Resistance through Art, chapter 4: Resistance through Solidarity.

We use these personal stories to inquire further into their relevance in today´s society, what our protagonists feel about the right-wing political movements gaining power, and how they think we can use their stories to resist current tendencies.

Gestures of Resistance weaves filmed footage from protest movements and individual acts of solidarity today, with filmed testimonies of our protagonists, archival material, and artworks depicting antifascist resistance, to plead for a path that reshapes our present and future into one governed by equality and justice for all, and asks us to resist the closure of our societies now before it´s too late.

  • Olga Stefan
    Director
    Fragments of a Life, My Illusions
  • Olga Stefan
    Writer
  • Asociatia uma Ed
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    historical, Holocaust, eastern Europe, romania, oral history
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 3 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    August 22, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    7,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Romania
  • Country of Filming:
    Israel
  • Language:
    Czech, Romanian, Slovak
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Fritz Bauer Institute
    frankfurt
    Germany
    November 4, 2019
Director Biography - Olga Stefan

Olga Stefan is a curator, researcher and filmmaker born in Romania, raised in Chicago, and based in Zurich since 2009.

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Director Statement

All my work, in all its forms - text, film, art exhibitions - attempts to understand how the past continues to impact our present, how this past is alive and how we carry it with us. My films have documented some of the last survivors of the Holocaust in Romania and other Eastern European countries, and always address the question of identity as an ever shifting and unstable construct.