Adrian Pirvu: Our Special Birth Day
We normally do not promote individual film projects on this site but exceptions were invented to be done… Yesterday in Bucharest, Adrian Pirvu, at the One World Romania’s “Cooking a Doc” went on stage to present (photo by Adi Marineci) an amazing film project about himself. He showed a touching clip with his mother, who tells how Adrian’s sight was (almost) saved just after he was born. This is one of the most intriguing stories I have heard for a long time. Adrian Pirvu needs a producer, eventually a co-director, in other words help to develop, and funding for research! Here is his own fine text written for the workshop:
A documentary by Adrian Pirvu
90 minutes, 4K
Stage of production: Development
Budget: 72 800 EUR
Logline
What are the biological citizens of Chernobyl, born in 1986, doing for the 30th anniversary of the nuclear accident that changed their lives and the continent they live on?
Synopsis
I started on the path to becoming a filmmaker on the 26`th of April, 1986. I was not born yet but a nuclear accident in a country that my pregnant mother was visiting, set me on the journey to make this film. In late July, I was born with all fingers and all toes, a little overweight but completely blind. I have partial vision in one eye now, thanks to a very dedicated doctor, a cornea donated by a fresh corpse and 28 year old country girl with the strength of a lioness, my mother.
When one reaches 30, there is a lot of soul searching. One ponders the shift from the care-free days of youth and joining the rank of “adults”. Hitting 30 with a disability on the 30th anniversary of the nuclear disaster that caused it gives a whole new dimension to this experience. The film will start with me, Adrian, a 29 year old, who is trying to figure out how his life would have turned out had he not been exposed to radiation while still in the womb. Although I have tried to build a life ignoring my handicap, it is still hard not to think about it while attempting to achieve things or interacting with others. I wish to find other people like me and see how they cope with this situation.
Our voyage starts in Romania and goes through Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus in search of the biological citizens of Chernobyl who were just infants when their future was already predetermined. My journey will be set against the background of a post-communist Eastern Europe where people with disabilities constantly fight an uphill battle with societal stigma and dysfunctional institutions. We see how those in power have forgotten the past and are preparing to make the same mistakes that led to that dark April morning.
Together with the films protagonists, I will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the disaster in the place where it all began. Were they able to make the best of a hostile environment, like the countless animals who now flourish in the irradiated wilderness around Chernobyl?
About the Director
Film school graduate with experience both as director and producer for documentary and fiction shorts. After one year teaching English in China, I became more and more involved in disabled issues and am now working for the Romanian National Council on Disability as a TV and documentary producer.
Contact
+40726302265
