Join the Center for Folklore Studies for our monthly (virtual) lunch! Each month we will feature a guest speaker (or speakers) who will share their work with us , followed by Q&A and open discussion.
Join us for a screening of Elena Stoycheva's documentary, Chergi Weavers, followed by Q&A. This event will be moderated by Sarah Craycraft (PhD Candidate, Comparative Studies), who has conducted ethnographic research in Bulgaria.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://osu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUkcu2pqD8vGtKdNwLj8HlRbnY4Yr9cJDWz
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Chergi Weavers (2016) is a short documentary which reveals a story full of humor, improvisation and colorful characters. A young designer arrives in a small Bulgarian village, where most remaining inhabitants are elderly women. She convinces the grannies to weave a new model of a carpet in the traditional way. As they start to assemble an old weaving loom, however, they discover that parts are missing. The film explores how to restore the missing links between people, generations, and shared knowledge.
Elena Stoycheva works in the fields of participatory urban planning, socially engaged art, and documentary film in Austria and Bulgaria. In 2015, she participated in an artistic residency program, which allowed her to immerse herself in the local community of a remote, depopulating village. Since then, she has been working on projects that explore cultural heritage and, especially, the role and handmade creations of women.
Sarah Craycraft is a PhD candidate in the department of comparative studies. Her dissertation explores village revitalization projects in Bulgaria and intergenerational connections to place, to better understand what motivates urban-rural migration and the different forms it can take. Along with Elena, Sarah participated in a 2020 artists residency titled Radical Imagination in Rural Realities, where the two collaborated on a documentation project to photograph women’s textile collections and their stories. The ongoing project is titled Open Wardrobes.
***Note: Attendees will be given the link and password in the Zoom chat to watch the film on Vimeo during the event. We will then reconvene on Zoom to discuss.***
If you require an accommodation such as live captioning or interpretation to participate in this event, please contact Cassie Patterson at Patterson.493@osu.edu. Requests made two weeks before the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.
