I left Prague on Monday morning six days ago and it feels like I have been gone months. Four consecutive pre-6 am trains and three different countries with their associated currencies and now I find myself in Kosice, Slovakia’s second largest town.
The momentum is starting to build on our film, dates set and interviews granted. I should be starting to relax, but things are still so precarious as I realized yesterday.
I have adopted the same technique on this production as I did with my last two documentaries. I arrive on location on my own, meet our prospective subjects and get to know them. I try and anticipate how they will be on camera, ask a few tougher questions, gather a little background, assess visual elements etc. Within eight hours of leaving Prague I had interviewed the ombudsman of the Czech Republic, a professor of bioethics, a historian and a photo archive specialist.
I stayed over at a good friend’s in Bratislava and then headed to Budapest to interview an incredibly fiery lawyer and possibly one of the keys to our documentary. She is not concerned about speaking her mind, contentious issue or not. The only thing is we have to travel to Budapest to film her and her schedule is not very accommodating.
For example, it took me two weeks to set up an interview with her and I could only meet her after 6:30pm in Budapest, the last train returning to Bratislava, my base camp, is at 7:45. Needless to say the conversation got on a roll and we didn’t finish until 9:30. Thankfully there was a hostel across from the train station and I could easily catch my 5:20am train back to Bratislava.
Yes, I am now in my 30s and stay at hostels. Which could really bring me to a longwinded tangential rant, but essentially I have made a choice in life and material wealth and possessions have become something that is beyond my grasp. In order to self-finance this production, I really have to be careful with my expenses.
So anyways, I spent the day in Bratislava catching up with notes, emails and trying to relax in the evening. Thankfully my friend knows me well and found it not difficult to chastise me over working myself to exhaustion. (which I know I need) If I could only have a gay man in every port my life would be so much simpler!
After a night of home-cooked curry and the documentary ‘Jesus Camp’ I caught the 5:55am train for Kosice, eastern Slovakia. I have been here before, four years earlier on a similar topic. My interests have not changed much over the years.
However this way my first time traveling by train during the day, it was previously the overnight from Prague, and I realized after traveling through the Tatras that I wanted to enjoy a little bit of peace and quiet in the Slovak wilderness on this trip. In a way I felt at home by the mountainous scenery and excited by the prospect of what I was about to explore!
But first things first, I arrived and had to find myself accommodation. I wandered the streets a little and marveled at the head-scarved older women and the number of traditionally dressed Slovaks. Such a sweet little place!
I eventually found my way to the information center and got a few names of hotels and hostels, wandered about and explored a few but they where booked, so I decided to go to the hostel prearranged by my host of the Roma Press Association (RPA). I was a little dubious over it as it was about a third the price of all others, but I’m open-minded and budget conscious.
Turns out I’m booked at a dormitory. Well I’m not above anything, see slumber party in my Africansynergy blog for further proof. So I’ve stayed. Fortunately over the weekend all the kids go home and I have the whole place to myself.
But living quarters are usually irrelevant to me. I rarely spend time in my quarters and this trip is no exception.
Within an hour of my arrival I am with my host from the RPA and we are heading to dinner to discuss my agenda. She’s also a fiery soul and we hit it off instantly. She’s constantly on guard about being labeled an activist. Finds it really offensive that people assume that because she works for the RPA she has an agenda. She also is fed up with foreign journalists arriving and wanting to spend 24hours in the city and walk away with a story. Without mincing any words it is quite clear that if I’m going to have access to individuals for my documentary I am going to have to spend some serious time in the region. All right with me!
She picks me up the following morning to head to a place called Vranov about an hour out of Kosice, but first we pick up her editor near her residence. We have a dual agenda. The first is for me to meet with a human rights lawyer that works almost exclusively with Roma. The second is so the editor can give a statement about a discrimination case in the town. Four men were denied service in a local bar because the owner said they were drunk. All were sober and proceeded to the police station to register a complaint. The editor in the meantime called the bar to talk with the owners who told her that she hates Roma and does not want to serve them in her pub… little did she know that the editor is Roma.
As my contact says you don’t need to be an activist. You can just tell it as it is and it’s a story. Another example is a recent explosion in a small town nearly a month ago. A local policeman was deemed a hero for saving a 9-year-old boy and received financial compensation. However, it was in fact a Roma that did the saving and witnesses have been calling the RPA to report it as not being presented accurately in the mainstream press. The mainstream press know about it but prefer to credit the policeman with the heroic act.
I don’t want to wander into the region and start labeling people as this and that and pass judgment. I realize I’m an outsider and have much to learn. The next few days will be interesting. If my Friday night of Roma Theater is any indication of what I’m in store for, I’m nothing but excited.