Buzludzha: Memories In the Dust

The Documentary Filmmaking class, taught by Assistant Professor and documentary filmmaker Melody Gilbert, held an emotional screening of their class project on Wed, Dec. 10. The class has to complete two large projects during the semester: one individual short documentary and one class project, which constitutes of creating a longer documentary. For the latter, the group of film-makers focused on the old communist headquarters in Bulgaria, Buzludzha. The class brought a large audience to the auditorium in BAC. The group had filmed, edited and finished their documentary in 28 days. The film focused on Buzludzha through the eyes of two Bulgarians with contrasting views on communism. Stoyan Saladinov, a Bulgarian commando and the father of one of the film-makers, and Tenyo originally from Shipka. [caption id="attachment_24613" align="alignright" width="268" caption="Photo by Boryana Kaisheva"][/caption] Stoyan Saladinov was present at the screening of the documentary. After the film finished, he shared how amazed he was with the skills of the documentary class and commented: "I was humbled before the entire crew because I had never have thought that anyone would want to film me. Everything just happened very cleverly and I felt that these youngsters were doing this with a great love and that is why I agreed to help them. And by shooting this film they asked me questions I had never asked myself. My daughter was present for most of it and you helped me discover myself and for my daughter to see me and for me to see me. It is very interesting. Very different from everything that I have done until now. It is very hard to choose the words which to say, because there were questions which they were asking which I shouldn’t answer. To them it is interesting and every word of mine, especially in my profession, [caption id="attachment_24611" align="alignleft" width="287" caption="Photo by Boryana Kaisheva"][/caption] holds whole stories behind it which I shouldn’t share. This is the kind of life that we are talking about. Every day on the one side you have life on the other death. But I was never afraid and I never thought of it as scary. It’s only now when I am talking and getting interviews taken that I realize this." The screening concluded with Prof. Melody Gilbert handing out mugs to all of the class members, which signified them becoming real filmmakers.