From 24-28 June, a group of artists and cultural operators participated in professional development workshops run by Reactor, in partnership with Para Film & Teater (Norway) and Váróterem Projek (Cluj-Napoca), which took place at a location in the Apuseni Mountains. The workshops aimed at sharing new methods and tools for working in multi-ethnic communities, both artistically, organisationally and managerially, and were curated by the Norwegian partners. The two trainers were Gianluca Iumiento (for the artistic workshops) and Ishak Jalimam (management workshops).
Gianluca Iumiento is an Italian theatre and film director, actor and acting coach. After studying philosophy at the University of Pisa, he graduated from Italy’s National Film School, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, under the guidance of Oscar-nominated actor Giancarlo Giannini. From January 2012 to January 2019, he was Head of Acting at the National Academy of Arts in Oslo (KHiO), where he taught acting and directing courses. Currently, Iumiento works as an acting teacher at the National Film School in Rome CSC, where he teaches acting courses for first and third year students. Iumiento has worked since 2000 both as an actor and director in several ensemble theatres, festivals, film and television, creating and then organizing two acting festivals: Metodi Festival in Italy and the Oslo International Acting Festival in Norway. He has directed a feature film “NovemberOslo” and his plays have been performed in some of Europe’s leading theatres such as Det Norske Teatret, Piccolo Teatro in Milan, Teatr Polski in Wroclaw, Kilden Teater in Kristiansand and many others.
Ishak Jalimam graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Sarajevo, Department of Production and Management. He currently works at the Sarajevo Film Festival as the coordinator of CineLink Industry Days, coordinates the Dealing with the Past program and is the head of the educational segment of the festival. He is also a producer at the Sarajevo War Theatre. He works as producer of the International Theatre Festival for High School Students: Juventafest, and as technical director of MESS International Theatre Festival. He has worked on many films presented at these festivals: Sundance Film Festival, La Biennale di Venezia, Sarajevo Film Festival, Dokufest, Nashville Film Festival, Wisconsin Film Festival, Doxa Documentary Festival, HotDocs International Film Festival, etc. Founder and president of Realstage productions and founder of the Student Association of the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Sarajevo. He is the winner of the Young Producers Award at the Sofia Film Festival – Sofia Meetings 2020.
The events took place as part of the Fágáș project. Multicultural perspectives – strengthening cultural entrepreneurship in Cluj-Napoca in a Romanian-Hungarian interethnic context, funded by EEA Grants 2014-2021 under the RO-CULTURA Programme, call Strengthening cultural entrepreneurship and audience development (session 3).
The project aims at collaboration between the two theatres and audience development in Cluj by providing a unified perspective of the Romanian and Hungarian independent scene in the city. The project also includes two co-productions Reactor- Váróterem Projekt, which will discuss multicultural coexistence and will premiere this summer and in 2024 respectively. The first co-production will be directed by Ovidiu Caița and the second by Martin Boross (Hungary).
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The EEA grants represent the contribution of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to reducing economic and social disparities in the European Economic Area and strengthening bilateral relations with the 15 beneficiary countries in Eastern and Southern Europe and the Baltic States. These funding mechanisms are established on the basis of the Agreement on the European Economic Area, which brings together the EU Member States and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway as equal partners in the internal market. In total, the three countries contributed €3.3 billion between 1994 and 2014 and €1.55 billion for the 2014-2021 funding period. More details are available at: www.eeagrants.org and www.eeagrants.ro.
The RO-CULTURA programme is implemented by the Ministry of Culture through the Project Management Unit and has the overall objective of strengthening economic and social development through cultural cooperation, cultural entrepreneurship and cultural heritage management. The budget of the Programme is approximately 34 million euro. More details are available at www.ro-cultura.ro.
