Category Short Form 2023

1. Canada/Windswept Radio (Rebecca Nolan)
Resettlement

Author, producer, director, sound engineer: Rebecca Nolan

Language: English

Length: 9:03

Script >>>

When you meet someone new in Newfoundland, Canada instead of asking where they’re from you ask ‘Where do you belong to?’ Because the place of a person’s birth is so much a part of them that they belong to it. And it to them. But what happens when the place that you belong to gets wiped off of the map? Back in the 1950s many isolated fishing villages across Newfoundland were deemed a drain on the government, so residents were forced to abandon the only homes they had ever known. It was called Resettlement. The “Text” that I explore in this piece is the Newfoundland Centralization Act which became the catalyst for Newfoundland resettlement. In 1952 the Newfoundland Department of Welfare began drafting the Centralization Act that aimed at resettling communities that were deemed too small, or too costly to maintain. Resettlement as a concept however predates the act by several decades and has been written of in personal diaries and correspondence going back as far as the 1920s. In many cases resettled families brought their houses with them. Fishermen banded together and used their boats to float their houses across 50km of open sea. Others waited until winter and pulled their homes across the frozen bays by hand. Resettlement was supposed to be a new start, but this forced relocation left scars on the souls of the resettled. Families who had lived together for generations were scattered across different communities, forced to start over.

2. Croatia/HRT
The Dance of the Dead – the Holy Comic Strip of Beram

Original title: Ples mrtvaca- Beramski sveti strip

Authors: Jasna Mesarić, Marija Pečnik Kvesić

Producers: Adriana Kramarić

Director: Jasna Mesarić

Sound engineer: Marija Pečnik Kvesić

Other key staff: Lela Margitić, Dražen Bratulić (actors); Stjepan Večković (Istrian instruments);

Alen Sinkauz, Nenad Sinkauz (music)

Language: Croatian

Script >>>

“When we are in Beram, we are in the heart of Istria: on a map, the tip of our pencil is in the very center of the Istrian triangle”, writes Branko Fučić, the great researcher, connoisseur and admirer of Medieval Istrian painting. When in 1474 Vincent of Kastav left his workshop in Kastav to go to Beram, a major commission awaited him. He had to cover with paintings all the walls and the wooden vault ceiling of the little church, i.e. more than 200 square meters. Of all the images and allegories, the most harrowing was the fresco depicting the Danse Macabre. The Beram villagers saw Death in action: it invaded the world of the living, skeletons pursued people of all social strata, grabbing them by the coattails and arms, blowing trumpets, playing bagpipes, drumming to the beat with bones, intertwining with them in a frightening, derisive dance of the living and the dead: pope, cardinal, bishop, king, queen, innkeeper, pauper, soldier and pilgrim. No one was spared. The image was straightforward and convincing for everyone. Walking out of the church, they looked death in the eye each time.

In a little church in the heart of Istria, Vincent of Kastav brought disorder, horror and pain into the superstitious world of Medieval common folk, illuminated the theme and the darkness of death with dread and humor, violating the natural order of things.

3. Denmark/Library of Copenhagen
Sea hero,Con man & Spy (ep. 11)

Original title: Søhelt, Svindler & Spion

Author, producer, director, sound engineer: Claus Vittus

Language: Danish

Length: 9:35

Script >>>

"Sea hero,Con man & Spy" is an episode-podcast with so far 11 episodes, and it will probably have 18 episodes. It is of duration between 9 and 12 minutes. It is based on Jorgen Jorgensens works: A Shred of Autobiography (1835) and Historical Account of a Revolution (1809) (British Library). The podcast is produced for kids (7-12 years) and their parents/grandparents in order to introduce podcast and radio-stories for a younger audience and to promote desire to read books.The podcast is distributed for free (together with five other podcast-series produced by Copenhagen Libraries https://bibliotek.kk.dk/lyd)on platforms like Spotify, Podbean, Itunes, Apple a.o. All of it is accompanied with a website: https://bibliotek.kk.dk/section/soehelte-paa-vilde-veje THIS EPISODE: "Sea hero,Con man & Spy" - Episode 11 - Dog day King. Jørgen has come to Iceland with some English merchants who want to trade with the Icelanders. The Danish governor on the island did not want the English to be allowed to buy or sell anything. Jørgen had seen that the Icelanders were starving because there had been no ships with food for a long time. And Jørgen thought that the Danish governor did not take the Icelanders into consideration. “Of course I could not tamely submit to be sent back after a fruitless errand and to deprive a whole population of the support…”he writes. So he imprisons the governor and declares himself King.

4. Georgia /Georgian Public Radio
Uh, Anton Pavlovich...

Original title: Eh, Anton Pavlovich...

Author, director: Zurab Kandelaki - Based on "Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekhov

Producer: Natia Khoshtaria

Sound engineer: Bako Khvichia

Language: Georgian

Length: 9:45 min

Script >>>

Oh, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov “The Cherry Orchard “is the last play by Anton Chekhov. In the play, one of the last places in the list of actors is occupied by Firs. There is written that he is 87 years old flunky. During the whole play he says just a couple words but his last phrase – “and I was forgotten by everyone” is taking an important place for presenting the idea of the play. Firs was forgotten as a useless thing, but due to his long life, he witnessed many events and maybe he loves the cherry orchard more than any other main characters. In this mini radio play, the author was interested in what the lonely Firs, the actor, who was chosen to play this role, thinks. Mostly the actor and the character appear as one, although their heartache is the same it’s too difficult to distinguish which one is which. One laments a wasted life, and the other - why fate chose to play Firs, or why didn't Chekhov get one or two episodes where he could show off his acting talent for this role. During the long life of Firs, the play was staged in several different interpretations, sometimes it was sad, sometimes it was removed from the repertoire early due to the absurd decision of the director, sometimes it was staged in the totalitarian style of the Soviet era, or was modernist as well, all this you can find in our radioplay, It is told in details characteristic of that era. There was number of staged versions of the play, but none of them were such that made the poor flunky such a character who could felt himself like an important person like others, who with their ineptitude helped Lopikhin to cut down the cherry orchard. Firs, in a sad voice, asks to Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Why did he let Lopikhin cut down the cherry orchard?!

5. Germany/Werner Cee
Farewell to Gravity

Authors: Werner Cee (composition) / Bettina Obrecht (lyrics)

Producer, director, sound engineer: Werner Cee

Other key staff: Alf Terje Hana, Sverrir Gudjonsson (voice), Michael Wertmüller(percussion), Peter Pannke (cymbal)

Language: English

Length: 9:25

Script >>>

Farewell to Gravity is based on Johannes Kepler’s „science fiction“ text „Somnium“ (1634), a fictitious travel to the moon. A daemon brings the protagonist from Iceland to the moon in order to show him the earth from above (a forbidden perspective in Kepler’s time). He has to deal with adverse conditions and is rewarded a unique look at his home planet. The short audio piece transports the space-traveller to today’s moon, still a romantic symbol but currently also eyed as a valuable depot of raw materials and basis for space colonization. Looking back at earth, the traveller sees her beauty and fragility, but is also confronted with the debris belt surrounding it. While any day now, a real "Kessler effect“ crashing of satellites could build an impenetrable layer around the earth, there is presently a different, equally impenetrable debris belt: fragments of our media culture, crashing and shattering and forever circling the earth. The Icelandic astronaut goes through various phases: from the shock of seeing earth as it presents itself today via a short romance to a nostalgic look at old earth and, in the end, defiant acceptance and even relief in view of the burden, the madness he can now leave behind. The wry sentimental or almost enraptured lyrical texts encounter a dramatic sound aesthetic characterized by virtuoso instrumental playing and driving rhythms; the resulting tension feeds a grotesque dialogue, an outer-space look at our planet jolted by human greed and foolery.

6. Germany/Phoebe McIndoe and Marta Medvešek
Babylon Cinema Organ

Original title: Kinoorgel Babylon

Authors, producers, directors and sound engineers: Phoebe McIndoe and Marta Medvešek

Language: German

Length: 09:22

Script >>>

Made in 1929 to accompany silent movies, with 913 pipes and 66 registers, it was the biggest cinema organ in Germany.

But the organ’s grandeur wasn’t celebrated for long. Soon after its construction, sound film took over and the Babylon’s instrument became superfluous. Now, almost a century later and thanks to a dedicated team, Kino Babylon in Berlin Mitte has become a haven for lovers of silent film.

But it takes more than outdated technical equipment to experience this fading art in an authentic way. It requires quick fingers and the ability to improvise in real-time with a myriad of keys and buttons. A rare skill – and one that Babylon has found in the organist Anna Vavilkina.

7. Italy/Botafuego Audio
The texture/La Tramatura

Original title: La tramatura

Authors: Danila Domizi

Producer, director, sound engineer: Riccardo Giacconi

Language: Italian

Length: 04:22

Script >>>

2020: In a small town in central Italy, a woman retraces the plots of the films she has watched in her life, and the years she has watched them. The piece features excerpts from the evoked films' soundtracks, but never reveals what the films are.

8. Lithuania/Bilietų nėra
Resonanse

Original title: Rezonansas

Author: Edita Puskunigytė

Producer: Rasa Kregždaitė

Director: Julija Šatkauskaitė

Sound engineer: Artūras Jelinas

Language: English, Ukrainian, Hebrew

Length: 09:58

Script >>>

The architectural conversion of the Vilnius Sports Palace raises not only questions about socio-cultural responsibility relating to the Jewish cemetery that has been there since the fifteenth century, but creative aspirations as well. The factography of the abandoned building is revealed through the eyes of a stranger who came here from the future.

9. Portugal/Sofia Saldanha (1975-2022)
Lilith's lists

Original title: As listas de Lilith

Author, director, sound engineer: Sofia Saldanha

Producer: Sofia Saldanha for the spoken word project Estilhaços

Language: Portuguese

Length: 06:17

As Listas de Lilith Lilith is a female figure of Mesopotamian mythology and Jewish folklore. Lilith’s character has evolved throughout the years: she is known as the primordial she-demon or as Adam’s wife before Eve, disobeyed him and God, and declaring herself equal to Adam. Lilith´s lists is a radio murder ballad that evokes this enigmatic mythological figure. It has been produced for the spoken word project Estilhaços and presented at Correntes D'Escritas Literary Festival 2022*. [English script drive.google.com/file/d/11FGbYv6i…view?usp=sharing] Text by Sofia Saldanha, from https://radio-sofia.tumblr.com/ *with live streaming online on the 25th Feb. 2022 (info added at the time of the registration form). This program was entered in the festival in agreement with Estilhaços and Sofia's heirs (her friend Rita, and her mother, Arminda Saldanha).

10. Romania/Radio Romania
Dochia, the King's Daughter

Original title: Dochia, fiica împăratului

Author: Romanian folk legend, adapted by Ema Stere

Producer: Oana Cristea Grigorescu

Director: Attila Vizauer

Sound engineer: Mihnea Chelaru

Other key staff: Alexandra Stroe, Mădălina Ignat, Composer: Andrei Miricescu (actors)

Language: Romanian

Length: 5:36

Script >>>

The audio short production Dochia, the King's Daughter combines folk sources and renders the interweaving of legend with folk poetry as a characteristic of Romanian folk legends and fairy tales. The folk tale of Dochia circulated in Romanian folk literature in two versions. According to the first, derived from folklore by Gheorghe Asachi, Dochia was the daughter of King Decebal. The legend of Emperor Trajan in love with the daughter of the Dacian king became very popular from the 19th century onwards and suggests the birth of the Romanian people through a parable. The second, older version dates from the 17th century, from the time of Dimitrie Cantemir, and in it Dochia is the queen of Dacia, who later became the subject of folk tales, ballads and carols. At the same time, the legend of Baba Dochia is linked to the first day of March, as the heroine's name comes from the Byzantine calendar where the first day of spring is celebrated as Saint Evdokia. The myth of Baba Dochia is one of the most beautiful and important local myths, in any of its variants.

11. UK/Social Broadcasts
In the Beginning...

Author: Unknown

Producer, directors: Lucia Scazzocchio and Hawa Khan

Sound engineer: Lucia Scazzocchio

Language: English

Length: 10:00

Script >>>

The most profound human questions are those that give rise to creation myths: Who are we? Why are we here? What is the purpose of our lives and our deaths? How should we understand our place in the world? ‘In the Beginning..’ brings to life some of the ancestral creation myths and stories that have been an integral foundation of the cultural identity of different peoples across the globe. These tales explain fundamental principles across different cultures as well as providing deep insight into some of the traditions and rituals passed down through generations. They are a universal take on interpersonal relationships and perspectives, lessons on how creative processes can work and ideas of climate change and balance with nature. Adapted and dramatized with humour for young audiences, this series aims to be as engaging and educational for adults, with clever writing by Hawa Khan bringing her West African griot heritage into the mix with a modern twist. We have selected Episode 7: The Council of The Orishas An adaptation of the Yoruba canon, describing how humans were created; the coming of a great flood; and how Oshun, the goddess of fertility ensured that women are equal members of society. (The Yoruba are an ancient people with roots that date back over 2000 years. They were the rulers of the Oyo Kingdom, a West African Empire covering from what is now West Nigeria to Zaire and Sudan. The main city of Ile-Ife cultivated a great cultural tradition.)