Before a National Anthem
by Irina Botea
The film is attempting to analyze and exhaust the model of a national anthem through engaging with its form and content. The telos of composing a national anthem was not to mobilize a patriotic feeling around the idea of nation, but to consider: what is the political imagination of the moment?
For ‘Before a National Anthem’ writers and musicians were asked to create, in the freest way possible, a new national anthem for Romania. In addition, a ‘collage’ text was composed through the use of comments made by people in a variety of public spaces, responding to the question: how do you compose a national anthem today? The twelve chapters document a professional choir deciphering the freshly formulated anthems.
The project examines the capacity of songs to be sites of active resistance and social protest. Moreover, the choir itself constitutes a collective structure that negotiates the interpretation and performance of each musical piece.
For ‘Before a National Anthem’ writers and musicians were asked to create, in the freest way possible, a new national anthem for Romania. In addition, a ‘collage’ text was composed through the use of comments made by people in a variety of public spaces, responding to the question: how do you compose a national anthem today? The twelve chapters document a professional choir deciphering the freshly formulated anthems.
The project examines the capacity of songs to be sites of active resistance and social protest. Moreover, the choir itself constitutes a collective structure that negotiates the interpretation and performance of each musical piece.
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| Technique | Cinematic arts (Video,...) |
