Free Admission
CULTURAMA FESTIVAL 2023 presents
LECTURES AND FILMS
4:30 p.m. Atanas Grozdanov "Birds around us, how to observe and protect them – a conversation about urban biodiversity"
5:30 p.m. Penka Kazandzhieva "Mythical birds in the hall of the months"
6:30 p.m. Hristina Grozdanova Wild life art in contemporary Bulgarian art and the society of animalists, florists, and scientific illustrators (DAFNI)
7:30 p.m. Simeon Tsonchev "They Fly Away" Bulgaria, documentary (2013) Dir. Simeon Tsonchev
8:30 p.m. "The Last Forest" Brazil, documentary (2021) Dir. Luis Bolonezi
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"The birds around us, how to observe and protect them – a conversation about urban biodiversity"
Atanas Grozdanov was born in Sofia and graduated from the National Natural Sciences and Mathematics High School "Acad. L. Chakalov." He holds a bachelor's degree in biology, a master's degree in zoology, and a doctorate in zoology from the Faculty of Biology at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski." He is the author and co-author of over 40 popular and over 60 scientific articles, book chapters, manuals, and other publications related to ornithology, herpetology, conservation biology, biological education, etc. He has participated as a leader or expert in over 20 scientific projects dedicated to species studies, monitoring of protected areas, educational developments, etc. He is a lecturer and group leader in the Erasmus Intensive Program in Spain and Portugal. Since 2004, he has been working as an assistant and senior assistant at the Faculty of Biology of Sofia University, where he is currently a member of the Faculty Council and the Academic Council. Guest lecturer at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy and the National Center for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases. He is the founder of the SKORETS educational platform – a student club for education and development with an ecological center at the Faculty of Biology, which develops students' skills and motivation to study and protect nature, and maintains a living educational collection with hundreds of visitors annually. Participant in the preparation of the national biology team and member of the National Commission of the Olympiad.
Creator of the "Wild Sofia" page, dedicated to promoting and protecting wild animals and plants in urban environments, as well as the social media groups "Amphibians and Reptiles in Bulgaria," "Invasive Species in Bulgaria," and others.
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"Mythical Birds in the Hall of Months"
Penka Kazandzhieva is an artist. She believes in creative intuition, which accompanies and presents the work as a gift-revelation to its creator; She hopes that studying art history can also be a process of self-exploration that cultivates the senses and makes us more perceptive, so that life is expressively meaningful in both good times and bad. And above all: whatever we know and whatever we create should be because of Love-omniscience.
Penka Kazandzhieva is a costume and set designer; she teaches art history at the Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music and has published works on the correspondences between music and the visual arts through the prism of light, memory, and time. P. Kazandzhieva is a consultant on the Cultural Perspectives Foundation's project "The Magic Flute." She has not won any competitions or festivals, except for numerous ones as a chorister in the Polyphonia Chamber Choir.
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Wild life art in contemporary Bulgarian art and the Society of Animalists, Florists, and Scientific Illustrators (DAFNI)
Hristina Grozdanova
Hristina Grozdanova is an art historian and chief curator of the art collection at the Regional History Museum in Sofia. Thanks to her meeting with Atanas Grozdanov, an ornithologist and now her husband, she devoted herself to various studies related to the presence of birds in art while still a student at the National Academy of Arts. One such interesting topic is the depiction of the sparrow in one of the most popular iconographies of the Madonna and Child and its symbolic meaning in Italian Renaissance painting. Christina's research work over the past few years has been devoted to Bulgarian scientific illustration and the few early examples from the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. Her studies have led to many interesting encounters with contemporary Bulgarian artists working in the field, as well as to the establishment of the Association of Animalists, Florists, and Scientific Illustrators (DAFNI). Thus, although Hristina's research interests are mainly related to history and so-called old art, she has become the organizer of DAFNI's annual exhibitions. Her work at the Regional History Museum in Sofia and its branches also gave her the opportunity to work actively with many contemporary Bulgarian artists.
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Simeon Tsonchev "They Are Flying Away" Bulgaria, documentary (2013) Dir. Simeon Tsonchev
Synopsis: Look up and see the birds, because they are flying away
25 days of filming; 35 hours of raw footage; more than 40 species of birds, including the rare and endangered red-breasted goose, Egyptian vulture, and imperial eagle. A story about the diversity of wild birds in Bulgaria.
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The Last Forest Brazil, documentary (2021) Dir. Luis Bolonzi
Facts and folklore blend together in an enchanting Brazilian social study.
Director Luis Bolonzi challenges patronizing cultural fetishism in his skillful documentary portrait of the Amazonian Yanomami community by giving them a voice in the narrative.
Year: 2021
Director: Luis Bolonzi
Genre: Documentary
Age rating: 14
Awards
Berlin International Film Festival: 2021 Winner – Panorama Audience Award – Best Film
Seoul Eco Film Festival: 2021 Winner – Grand Prize, Best Film
