CINEMAX , Veranda Mall, 15 IULIE 2021

OANA GEORGESCU, PR specialist, TV producer
Good evening and welcome! And, especially, I’m glad we found each other at a special, soul event, which brought us together after all this time.
We are together due to a high-profile cultural project, of Fildas Art and Catena pentru artă, started 3 years ago. The launch of a feature documentary, which first traveled in the world of renowned international festivals dedicated to documentary films, has been awarded and has already witnessed success. Returning home, it was worth waiting a little for the gala opening this evening, which we all wanted. Darul aripilor, the film of Corina Voicu, is a project to which dozens of extraordinary people have contributed, from here and everywhere, many of them joining us today. It is a film dedicated to flight, the “absolute ideal of mankind”, as the great artist Pavel Bucur said, who passed away 5 years ago, with the huge regret that “Înaripata”, which has been watching for almost 4 decades, from a 48-meter height, on the bank of the Danube – Black Sea canal, was forgotten. He left us with the disappointment and helplessness of not managing to stop the tragedy by which the valuable work of art, one of the tallest monuments in the world and the tallest in the country, has been gone through for years.
We are glad to be together at this celebration of culture and art and we thank you all for being with us.
The first guest of the evening is associate professor, PhD supervisor at UNATC, scientific researcher at the Institute of Art History of the Romanian Academy, renowned historian and film critic, prose writer, essayist, screenwriter, president and member of the juries of major international film festivals. A significant representative of the academia and civil society in Romania. It is an honor for us to invite on the stage MRS. PROF. MANUELA CERNAT, PhD, distinguished ambassador of Romanian cultural values and traditions.
MANUELA CERNAT:
I am experiencing an overwhelming emotion, as I am after such a long time in an almost full cinema theatre, at the premiere of a film dedicated to one of our country’s greatest artists, who was a friend of mine during my student years, a person whom I respected so much. This film is a tribute to the creativity of an artist who was part of a generation of giants, literally and figuratively: the sculptors Pavel Bucur and Florin Codre had the chance to start their careers in a moment of great cultural openness, which allowed them to spread their wings towards an unlimited flight of their art.
   I discovered in the film of Corina Voicu a tribute full of poetry, sensitivity and affectionate warmth, a sad one still, one which was on the brink, as it speaks to us about a great artist and about the genetic powerlessness of Romanians to preserve and defend their values and creations, to preserve and defend their monuments, churches, mansions, citadels, monasteries or memorial houses, which are destroyed in front of our eyes, in total indifference.
   The Gift of Wings is a wonderful project, born out of the collaboration of extraordinary women. I really can state that the women are those who saved Romania. After 1990, 70% of women started businesses, they worked faster and adapted better to the changing times. The executive producer is a successful entrepreneur, a true business woman, one of the very few people in Romania who managed to create an extraordinary business and who thought, following the American model, that she owes it to the community to start doing good deeds for it. It is a rare quality and I congratulate her for it!
   Well, Corina Voicu invites us through her film to go to Straja, to create a human chain and to remind the authorities that we have one of the most impressive monuments in Europe and in the world, which is on the brink of crumbling due to unconcern, powerlessness and indifference. The Gift of Wings film has so many qualities that I think it would have been liked by a great Romanian woman, forgotten today: Elena Văcărescu was one of the great intellectuals of our country, who defended and supported cinematography. From the grandstand of the Nations Society (UN today), where she was a permanent delegate, she presided over the cultural section, supporting cinema as an art, and especially documentary films. Following one of her initiatives, in in 1925 in Rome, a Research Institute for Cinematography was established and in 1936, in Paris, the famous CIDALC – International Committee for Diffusion of Artistic and Literary Works by the Cinematography – was created. The first recipient of CIDALC Award, set up by Elena Văcărescu and Nicolas Pillat, was Ion Cantacuzino, for a documentary about the Danube. Here are some pages of film history which carry us into the past, still connecting us today, when documentaries worldwide tend to be more enjoyed than fiction movies, as they bring about new, real universes and tell us about people who must not be forgotten.
   I’ll get back to the film dedicated to Pavel Bucur, one we discover through the images brought in front of us by Corina Voicu, a film produced by Mrs. Anca Vlad, a creation spread around the globe… A great quality of the film is that it tells us a little bit about history too: it takes us back to the 80s, not with rage and arrows, but by looking objectively at a reality which today seems unbelievable. UTC funded a gigantic non-figurative work in a moment when everything cringed and froze in Romania, and censorship became insurmountable for artists: at Straja, on the bank of the Danube – Black Sea Canal, a work of art was erected. The artist saw it as a tribute to the thousands of people who worked and were martyred there. It was his deepest thought, not confessed then, it was a tribute to useless martyrdom, and his protest against the times when the simple word «canal» sent shivers down Romanians’ spines.
The film brings an idea into normal times, when the magnificent body of the statue overlooking the canal which connects Romania to the world must be saved! This film is a cry for help, an appeal made to the civil society and to the authorities to save it, as a post-mortem tribute which will linger, like the monument at Straja. It is very difficult to speak about an artist whom those times did not appreciate as he would have deserved, and I congratulate the author for her sensitivity of coming close to her character and for her love rendered into pictures!
OANA GEORGESCU, PR specialist, TV producer
I will invite a very successful poet, writer and editorialist, who is also the founding director of Agențiadecarte.ro, DAN MIRCEA CIPARIU, awarded for numerous cultural projects and, to congratulate him again, PhD in Philology for only one day.
DAN MIRCEA CIPARIU:
The Greeks used the female figure in sculpture when they wanted to make imaginary representations (and a poetical image) of the idea of ascension and emancipation. Pavel Bucur did the same. Let us not forget that in 1976, he unveiled at Bistrița-Năsăud a statue representing Veronica Micle, and the idea of presenting flight started from a poetical image which is a multiplying one among the artist’s works. In case of The Monument of Youth, Winged Angel or Winged, we see the representation of femininity, and this film is a feminine undertaking and because of these ladies, what is happening tonight might lead us to a story with a happy ending. Steps were taken for Winged by Pavel Bucur to be included in the list of National Culture Patrimony of Historic Monuments, but the winding road of the present is still so unreal that it could go beyond the imagination of a technocrat. I am sure that this film will cause clear delight upon viewing and that after it, we could find ourselves in a world that thinks in… poem lines and writes in… poems.
OANA GEORGESCU, PR specialist, TV producer
I will transpose into the voice and thoughts of the author of this film, before inviting her on the stage. She says like this: “It’s a film about a friend I’ve never met, it is a film about the joy of flying. I would like to life so many years to be able to make films about other friends I’ve never met, but whom I would like to meet. This film was a joy, an exploration, a knowledge, a riot, a revelation, an inquiry, an adventure, a drama. It was fascination and incitement, like any mystery behind the creative act of an artist”. – testified the author of the documentary “Darul aripilor”.
CORINA VOICU, producer, screenplay, director of the movie:
Thank you, each of you who are attending the gala premiere of this documentary. In a certain moment of my life, you placed a stone to my foundation. I am delighted that, when finishing this construction, I received kind, gentle, prompt and enthusiastic help from huge personalities of the Romanian and European culture, willing to take part in making this film.
   I want to thank the family consisting of three wonderful artists, Sanda Bucur, sisters Ana and Tania Bucur, who maybe will not find in the film everything the father, husband, friend, the man, the artist Pavel Bucur stood for… I could not fit such a rich universe in just 60 minutes. But you shall discover what I have kept in my soul from what I found out from you during these three years, and also some pieces of the story of this masterpiece which is Winged.
   Today, it is very difficult to find an art film producer in Romania, and I need to thank Anca Vlad. For her, there is no such thing as “impossible”. Everything is possible! She is overwhelmingly tenacious and, most of all, she is passionate, she loves art, which is not such a common thing, and such a love is a great burden. Confidence obliges you, makes you responsible and gives you wings to fly!.
Now, after Mrs. Manuela Cernat, after Mr. Cipariu, what can Corina Voicu tell you about Anca Vlad? I will tell you from my point of view. I think it’s difficult to find an art film producer in Romania. I don’t think you will contradict me, those who are part of the cinema world. Anca Vlad has what it takes to be an art producer, namely tenacity. For Anca Vlad there is no “No can do”, “It’s too late”, “It’s too early”, “It’s too far”, “It’s too white”, “It’s too black”, “It’s too colorful”, “It’s too colorless”, “It’s too odorless”, “It’s too much”, “It’s too little”… Everything is possible. And that’s because, besides her tenacity, Anca Vlad has a passion, has a love of art, that is not common for anyone. And I believe this love is a heavy burden, because this love bounds you, this love makes you accountable. And, besides the fact that I have to thank her for giving me the opportunity to make this film, I can only allow her to contradict me or approve me, as we usually do. Why this love is so great and what urged her in this battle to produce a film, I would like to invite her to tell you…
ANCA VLAD, executive producer of the movie, founder of FILDAS ART FOUNDATION, Founder and President of CATENA COMPANY:
We have been waiting to launch this film for some time and the moment is finally here! We started this cinema project out of love for art! We needed such a documentary! When I found out that the artist Pavel Bucur passed away, I experienced a very difficult period. I was a great admirer of his work, his personality and the shapes he created, and I felt that he left us much too soon, without getting the chance to finalize the projects he was working on… His great suffering, that he would mention time and again, was «What is happening at Straja?» and «Why is the monument degrading?», «Why were the bas-reliefs stolen?», «Why won’t people realize its value?»…”
As a form of recognition for the entire creation of Pavel Bucur for Romania, we thought of making this film. The talent and perseverance of Corina Voicu are extraordinary, so we started this journey three years ago. You will see in the documentary how the stories unfold, and you shall step in the footsteps of the artist, of his works and memories which he left behind in so many places: in Italy, at Concordia Sagittaria and Caorle, In Venice and Portogruaro, then in Bucharest, Bistrița-Năsăud, Constanța and Mogoșoaia. The Gift of Wings generated many stories and from story to story, following them and linking them, an exceptional film was created.

CORINA VOICU, after the premiere of GIFT OF WINGS.

July 18, 2021, Bucharest

The GIFT OF WINGS premiere was a warm, wonderful, maybe too short – for some of us – gathering between friends, prominent cultural figures at the national and international level, European and Romanian artists, art lovers who, with dedication and knowing the importance of it, participated in the writing, through this film, of a new page in the Romanian cultural history. I want to say thank you to my friends and all the others who, on a hot summer day, took time to participate in this event particularly dear to our hearts.

The film speaks for itself and we invite you to watch it, including on this website.

GIFT OF WINGS has received numerous nominations and awards at film festivals around the world, which confirms once more that the art documentary genre never dies.
​ Unless we let it die.

I also want to thank these great figures of the Romanian culture, too little known, too little promoted by the mass media, too little spoiled in Romania, but who deserve so much more. Spontaneously, enthusiastically, and with real inclination, they helped reconstruct the pages of history you are about to see, while their testimonies give credibility and weight to the portrait of sculptor Pavel Bucur.

PAULINA POPOIU, Ph.D. , manager of the “Dimitrie Gusti” National Village Museum
Sculptor and butafor of the National Theatre in Bucharest, VIOREL PATER
Sculptor, professor, writer, and cultural figure VLAD CIOBANU
Independent film producer DUMITRU POHUS
Great actor and cultural figure MIRCEA DIACONU
Academy member and Professor GRIGORE POPESCU ARBORE
Sculptor YORGOS ILIOPOULOS
Curator ADINA RENTEA
Painter, writer, symbologist ANTONIO RIZZO
Architect MIHAI VATAMANIUC
General Manager Iptana – engineer CORNEL MARTINCU
RADU BOROIANU , cultural figure, curator, art critic
SIMON OSTAN SIMONE – Italian visual artist
ENZO PAGANI – Italian visual artist, creator of the Pagani de la Legnano Museum Castelanza, Italia.
Architect STEFAN BALICI , manager of the National Heritage Institute
Architect Restorer RENZO RAVAGNAN – manager Istitituto per I benni culturali – Padova
Art critic and curator BORIS BROLLO
Italian curators of the museum CA’ LA GHIRONDA from Zola Predosa, Bologna
Anastase Severin– former general manager, Lucian Bucuroiu – CEO and
Daniel Georgescu , general manager The Navigable Canals Authority.

The year 2020 was a tough one and sad for us all.
Three of those who were close to us in the film are no longer among us.
We want to pay homage to them . They are: NICOLAE IVANOV, architect MIRCEA MIHAI and DOINA PAULEANU, PhD , the manager of the National Art Museum in Constanta.

***

Alongside the producer, FILDAS ART, they also joined the film crew during the most difficult moments of the production the teams from Tonica Group Agency and SensoTv, through director Otilia Spataru and production manager Rodica Petre.

***

Works of art need to be seen, felt close, sometimes touched, caressed … Which, of course, proves to be impossible, almost every time.
Sometimes they need to be seen from afar, from a distance of hundreds of meters, if we are talking about a monumental work.
And if we cannot do it, then the camera will do it for us.
This is what the two young and brave operators, Alex Andries and Silviu Crangureanu, with the help of camera assistant Ionel Stanciu, did for us, they brought us closer to the work of art, 5 mm close, and also they helped us see it from hundreds a meters afar, with the help of a drone,
The post-production team – THIS IS INSOMNIA , from London, , which works including for the BBC, was established and managed by Dragos Teglas. He is the fierce Romanian editor who amazed many foreign producers and who is now in full campaign for Red bull, which is why he couldn’t be here, in Romania, right now, to attend our premiere. With him and his team, we edited this film, in several versions, at a fast pace, which also boosted our enthusiasm. Ten years ago, it was also with Dragos Teglas that I wrote the 5 editions of the Paris Fashion Week, with those films casting international fashion designer Ingrid Vlasov as a protagonist.

***

Although you will see very little of her in this documentary, the FAMILY of sculptor Pavel Bucur was the actual character that pushed this project forward.
A beautiful family of visual artists: Sanda Bucur- the wife, Ana and Tania Bucur, the daughters.
It is very difficult to capture one man’s life and all the stories surrounding an artist’s masterpiece in only 60 minutes. This is why you will never see in this film all that the husband and father and artist and friend Pavel Bucur meant to you.
However, I dedicated this film TO A FRIEND whom I NEVER MET.

***

There is no other person in Romania, I believe, more suited to be an art film producer than ANCA VLAD .
Anca Vlad, an important name in the business world, has a deep passion, and very well documented too, for art.
And she also has what a film producer really needs: tenacity: Anca Vlad won’t give up! For Anca Vlad there is no such thing as: “it cannot be done, we don’t get to do this, it’s too complicated, it’s too far, it’s enough, it’s too little, it’s too early, it’s too late,…”
Anca Vlad’s passion brought this film to a good end; She carried the burden of such a great love on her shoulders. Which makes you feel responsible, makes you turn more to history, it warns and conquers you.

***

I am honored and overwhelmed by the fact that two personalities of the Romanian cinematography, renowned art and film critics, wanted to speak about my film: University Professor Manuela Cernat, Ph.D. associate professor and doctoral supervisor at UNATC (National University of Theatre and Film) Bucharest, a scientific researcher at the Art History Institute of the Romanian Academy: and DAN MIRCEA CIPARIU, Ph.D. in philology, poet, writer and successful publisher, founding manager of AgențieideCarte.ro. Manuela Cernat deeply understands the work of a “filmmaker,” beyond the actual word; Dan Mircea Cipariu, who read Pavel Bucur at a very personal level and wanted to get involved, of a direct manner, in the difficult process of bringing the history of the Winged on the Danube-Black Sea Canal to a good end. I want to thank them and show my gratitude to them!

The national premiere of the Gift of Wings documentary enjoyed great success

   The gala premiere of the Gift of Wings documentary took place at Cinemax, inside Veranda Mall, in front of a select audience, including numerous culture, art and business personalities from our country.

   The Gift of Wings, the film by Corina Voicu, is dedicated to the sculptor Pavel Bucur and to the dramatic story of “Înaripata” (Winged), the highest non-figurative art monument in Romania and in Europe.
   It is a film dedicated to “flight, the ultimate ideal of humankind”, as the great artist who passed away five years ago would say with a huge regret that “Winged”, which, from its 48 meter-height, has been watching over us and over the Danube – Black Sea Canal for almost four decades, passed into oblivion… he left us with the disappointment and the helplessness of not being able to stop the tragedy that valuable piece of art has been experiencing for years.

   The event took place with the support of FILDAS ART and CATENA, through the CATENA for ART Program.

   The Gift of Wings collection documentary  has been launched in premiere, after having traveled to renown international documentary festivals, where it received numerous awards and great success.
   Between December 2020 and March 2021, the film, having 5 selections and nominations, received 3 important distinctions: Best Feature Documentary at the Venice Film Awards – Monthly Competition (Italy), Best Feature Film at The Monthly Film Festival (TMFF, UK) and Impact DOCS award, in the category Award of Merit Documentary (S.U.A.).
   Together with Sanda Bucur, the wife of the late artist and their daughters, Ana and Tania Bucur, the film cast, artists (Vlad Ciobanu, Viorel Prater), writers, film reviewers and art critics, representatives of the National Institute of Patrimony, the event was attended also by actors Mircea Diaconu, Emilia Popescu, Cristina Deleanu and Eugen Cristea, the orchestra conductor Răsvan Cernat, Aurelian Temișan and Monica Davidescu, Adrian Enache and his daughter, Diana, Nico, Ozana Barabancea, Marina Almășan, Alexandra Cepraga, Ingrid Vlasov, together with Noelle and Marian Nedelcu, Alex Naghi and many others.

   The speakers were Anca Vlad, chairman of FILDAS Art and of Fildas-Catena Group, the executive producer of the film, the University lecturer PhD Manuela Cernat, historian and film critic, writer, essay-writer and screenwriter, an important representative of academia and the civil society in Romania, the writer and poet Dan Mircea Cipariu and the director of the film, Corina Voicu.

   Anca Vlad, chairman of FILDAS ART and of Fildas-Catena Group, the executive producer of the Gift of Wings film: “We have been waiting to launch this film for some time and the moment is finally here! We started this cinema project out of love for art! We needed such a documentary! When I found out that the artist Pavel Bucur passed away, I experienced a very difficult period. I was a great admirer of his work, his personality and the shapes he created, and I felt that he left us much too soon, without getting the chance to finalize the projects he was working on… His great suffering, that he would mention time and again, was «What is happening at Straja?» and «Why is the monument degrading?», «Why were the bas-reliefs stolen?», «Why won’t people realize its value?»…”

   As a form of recognition for the entire creation of Pavel Bucur for Romania, we thought of making this film. The talent and perseverance of Corina Voicu are extraordinary, so we started this journey three years ago. You will see in the documentary how the stories unfold, and you shall step in the footsteps of the artist, of his works and memories which he left behind in so many places: in Italy, at Concordia Sagittaria and Caorle, In Venice and Portogruaro, then in Bucharest, Bistrița-Năsăud, Constanta and Mogosoaia. The Gift of Wings generated many stories and from story to story, following them and linking them, an exceptional film was created.”

   The university lecturer PhD Manuela Cernat, associate professor and doctoral supervisor at UNATC Bucharest, a scientific researcher within the Art History Institute of the Romanian Academy: “I am experiencing an overwhelming emotion, as I am after such a long time in an almost full cinema theatre, at the premiere of a film dedicated to one of our country’s greatest artists, who was a friend of mine during my student years, a person whom I respected so much. This film is a tribute to the creativity of an artist who was part of a generation of giants, literally and figuratively: the sculptors Pavel Bucur and Florin Codre had the chance to start their careers in a moment of great cultural openness, which allowed them to spread their wings towards an unlimited flight of their art.
   I discovered in the film of Corina Voicu a tribute full of poetry, sensitivity and affectionate warmth, a sad one still, one which was on the brink, as it speaks to us about a great artist and about the genetic powerlessness of Romanians to preserve and defend their values and creations, to preserve and defend their monuments, churches, mansions, citadels, monasteries or memorial houses, which are destroyed in front of our eyes, in total indifference.
   The Gift of Wings is a wonderful project, born out of the collaboration of extraordinary women. I really can state that the women are those who saved Romania. After 1990, 70% of women started businesses, they worked faster and adapted better to the changing times. The executive producer is a successful entrepreneur, a true businesswoman, one of the very few people in Romania who managed to create an extraordinary business and who thought, following the American model, that she owes it to the community to start doing good deeds for it. It is a rare quality and I congratulate her for it!

   Well, Corina Voicu invites us through her film to go to Straja, to create a human chain and to remind the authorities that we have one of the most impressive monuments in Europe and in the world, which is on the brink of crumbling due to unconcern, powerlessness and indifference. The Gift of Wings film has so many qualities that I think it would have been liked by a great Romanian woman, forgotten today: Elena Vacarescu was one of the great intellectuals of our country, who defended and supported cinematography. From the grandstand of the Nations Society (UN today), where she was a permanent delegate, she presided over the cultural section, supporting cinema as an art, and especially documentary films. Following one of her initiatives, in in 1925 in Rome, a Research Institute for Cinematography was established and in 1936, in Paris, the famous CIDALC – International Committee for Diffusion of Artistic and Literary Works by the Cinematography – was created. The first recipient of CIDALC Award, set up by Elena Vacarescu and Nicolas Pillat, was Ion Cantacuzino, for a documentary about the Danube. Here are some pages of film history which carry us into the past, still connecting us today, when documentaries worldwide tend to be more enjoyed than fiction movies, as they bring about new, real universes and tell us about people who must not be forgotten.
   I’ll get back to the film dedicated to Pavel Bucur, one we discover through the images brought in front of us by Corina Voicu, a film produced by Mrs. Anca Vlad, a creation spread around the globe… A great quality of the film is that it tells us a little bit about history too: it takes us back to the 80s, not with rage and arrows, but by looking objectively at a reality which today seems unbelievable. UTC funded a gigantic non-figurative work in a moment when everything cringed and froze in Romania, and censorship became insurmountable for artists: at Straja, on the bank of the Danube – Black Sea Canal, a work of art was erected. The artist saw it as a tribute to the thousands of people who worked and were martyred there. It was his deepest thought, not confessed then, it was a tribute to useless martyrdom, and his protest against the times when the simple word «canal» sent shivers down Romanians’ spines.
The film brings an idea into normal times, when the magnificent body of the statue overlooking the canal which connects Romania to the world must be saved! This film is a cry for help, an appeal made to the civil society and to the authorities to save it, as a post-mortem tribute which will linger, like the monument at Straja. It is very difficult to speak about an artist whom those times did not appreciate as he would have deserved, and I congratulate the author for her sensitivity of coming close to her character and for her love rendered into pictures!”

   Dan Mircea Cipariu, a philology PhD, poet, writer and successful editorialist, founder of AgențieideCarte.ro: “The Greeks used the female figure in sculpture when they wanted to make imaginary representations (and a poetical image) of the idea of ascension and emancipation. Pavel Bucur did the same. Let us not forget that in 1976, he unveiled at Bistrita-Nasaud a statue representing Veronica Micle, and the idea of presenting flight started from a poetical image which is a multiplying one among the artist’s works. In case of The Monument of Youth, Winged Angel or Winged, we see the representation of femininity, and this film is a feminine undertaking and because of these ladies, what is happening tonight might lead us to a story with a happy ending. Steps were taken for Winged by Pavel Bucur to be included in the list of National Culture Patrimony of Historic Monuments, but the winding road of the present is still so unreal that it could go beyond the imagination of a technocrat. I am sure that this film will cause clear delight upon viewing and that after it, we could find ourselves in a world that thinks in… poem lines and writes in… poems.”

   Corina Voicu, director, screenwriter, producer of the Gift of Wings film: “Thank you, each of you who are attending the gala premiere of this documentary, in a certain moment of my life, you placed a stone to my foundation. I am delighted that, when finishing this construction, I received kind, gentle, prompt and enthusiastic help from huge personalities of the Romanian and European culture, willing to take part in making this film.
   I want to thank the family consisting of three wonderful artists, Sanda Bucur, sisters Ana and Tania Bucur, who maybe will not find in the film everything the father, husband, friend, the man, the artist Pavel Bucur stood for… I could not fit such a rich universe in just 60 minutes. But you shall discover what I have kept in my soul from what I found out from you during these three years, and also some pieces of the story of this masterpiece which is Winged.
   Today, it is very difficult to find an art film producer in Romania, and I need to thank Anca Vlad. For her, there is no such thing as “impossible”. Everything is possible! She is overwhelmingly tenacious and, most of all, she is passionate, she loves art, which is not such a common thing, and such a love is a great burden. Confidence obliges you, makes you responsible and gives you wings to fly!”.

   FILDAS ART and CATENA, through the CATENA for ART Program are executive producers, and the associate producers of the film are MONDOVISION MEDIA, Tonica Group, Senso TV, Senso Arte, Galeria Senso, This is INSOMNIA.

MESSAGES AFTER THE PREMIERE OF THE FILM, from the personalities invited to the EVENT

CLARA BUDEANU
TV producer – ProTv
Thank you very much! It was a special and touching experience. Congratulations!

MONICA DAVIDESCU
actress
Corina, you are a wonderful director, screenwriter, coordinator, publisher, storyteller, organizer…..this film, which spreads so much warmth like no other documentary spreads, clearly shows all these talents of yours. You are way too modest and you do not acknowledge the praises as you deserve. Well done! Congratulations! We are impressed. Thank you for inviting us. Best of luck for your future ahead!

University Professor MANUELA CERNAT, Ph.D.
Congratulations and sincere thanks for tonight! A wonderfully organized event, with important guests – I had the chance to see many lifetime friends! And I don’t just say this. It really was a special premiere and I felt great, like in the good old days.

PAUL GEORGESCU
Swimmer, international record man
Corina,
We need to thank you for inviting us to see the premiere of this extraordinary documentary, especially that you have been working on it since I swam across the English Channel. In a way I feel a little bit guilty that you didn’t finish it earlier. I stole your time with my swimming adventures so many times ….

OZANA BARABANCEA
Musician, artist, professor
Thank you for your trust. I spoke about you with persons who knew Pavel Bucur’s work and I congratulate you for this initiative!
See you soon!

SANDA CEPRAGA
Musician, sound engineer
Dear Corina,
I wanted to thank you for this lovely gathering and for the powerful emotion you made me feel!
It was not just Pavel’s image, who made me go back, down the memory lane, but the entire film, full of love, so beautiful, made with so much professionalism and dedication!
I am happy to have you among my dearest and precious friends!
Thank you!

INGRID VLASOV
International fashion designer
I hope that this evening was everything that you imaged it to be. And thank you for mentioning my name.
We were impressed by the film.

OANA GEORGESCU
producer, PR specialist SensoTV
Corina, with all my sincerity, you are an amazing person, a complete professional and a great SOUL. Not to mention your sensitivity and talent, I don’t have enough words to describe it … I admire and treasure you for who you are and for what you do and you can count on me anytime! Now, just go on and enjoy your success!

Corina Voicu, addressing EUGEN CRISTEA and CRISTINA DELEANU
Actors
My dear and forever friends. Thank you for coming to the premiere. I felt like my whole family, from all times, was there. And this made me feel great. You are the same as always and your spirit make me have confidence that the good and beautiful things never die. Someone should write a book about you, as artists, as people, as a couple. I wish you to have a wonderful life and enjoy it, and never lose your humor and the light that shines in your eyes. You are a wonder and I live you very much. Even if life takes us here and there, the true bridges never crumble. Thank you, Corina.

PRESS RELEASE AFTER THE PREMIERE

https://www.amosnews.ro/premiera-nationala-a-filmului-documentar-darul-aripilor-dedicat-sculptorului-(Pavel Bucur)s-a-bucurat-de-un-mare-succes/

The national premiere of the GIFT OF WINGS documentary dedicated to sculptor PAVEL BUCUR enjoyed great success.
July 21, 2021 AMOS News Desk

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The gala premiere of the GIFT OF WINGS documentary film took place at Cinemax, at the Veranda Mall, in front of a select audience, including numerous cultural, art, and business personalities from our country.

GIFT OF WINGS, the documentary film directed by Corina Voicu, is dedicated to sculptor Pavel Bucur and to the dramatic story of the „Înaripata” (Winged), the tallest non-figurative art monument in Romania and in Europe.

The film focuses on “flying, as the ultimate ideal of humankind,” as the great artist who passed away five years ago used to say, while deeply regretting that his “Winged,” which has been overlooking, from its 48-m height, over the Danube-Black Sea Canal, slipped into oblivion… He left us with the disappointment and the sadness of not being able to stop the tragedy that the valuable piece of art has been experiencing for years.

The event took place with the support of FILDAS ART and CATENA, through the CATENA for ART Program.

This is the premiere of the GIFT OF WINGS collection documentary, after having traveled to well-known international documentary film festivals, where it received awards and had great success.

Between December 2020 and March 2021, the film, which was selected and nominated five times, won three important awards: Best Feature Documentary at the Venice Film Awards, Monthly Competition (Italy), Best Feature Film at The Monthly Film Festival (TMFF, UK), and the Impact DOCS award, in the Award of Merit Documentary category (USA).

Speaking at the premiere were: Anca Vlad, CEO of FILDAS Art and of Fildas-Catena Group, executive producer of the film, University Lecturer Manuela Cernat, PhD, historian and film critic, novelist, essay-writer and screenwriter, an important representative of academia and the civil society in Romania, writer and poet Dan Mircea Cipariu and film director Corina Voicu.
Anca Vlad, president of FILDAS ART and CEO of Fildas-Catena Group, executive producer of the film GIFT OF WINGS: “We have been waiting to launch this film for some time now and the moment is finally here! We started this cinema project out of love for art! We needed such a documentary! When I found out that artist Pavel Bucur passed away, I experienced a very difficult period. I was an admirer of his work, of his personality, and of the forms he created and I felt like he disappeared too soon, without even being able to finish the projects he was working on … His great pain, which he mentioned, again and again, was “What happens in Straja?” and “Why is the monument degrading?” “Why were the bas-reliefs stolen?” “Why doesn’t the world realize its value?” … As a token of gratitude for everything that Pavel Bucur created for Romania, we came up with the idea of making this film.
… The talent and perseverance of Corina Voicu are extraordinary, so we started this journey three years ago. You will see in the documentary how the stories unfold and you will step in the footsteps of the artist, of his works and memories which he left behind in so many places, in Italy, at Concordia Sagittaria and Caorle, in Venice and Portogruaro, then in Bucharest, Bistrița-Năsăud, Constanta, and Mogosoaia. GIFT OF WINGS generated many stories and from story to story, following their thread and bringing them together, an exceptional film was created.”

University professor Manuela Cernat, PhD, associate professor and doctoral supervisor at UNATC (National University of Theatre and Film) Bucharest, a scientific researcher at the Art History Institute of the Romanian Academy: “I am experiencing an overwhelming emotion as I am after such a long time in an almost full cinema theatre, at the premiere of a film dedicated to one of our country’s greatest artists, who was a friend of mine while I was a student, a person whom I admired and respected so much. This film is a tribute paid to the creativity of an artist who was part of a generation of giants, literally and figuratively:
​ Sculptors Pavel Bucur and Florin Codre had the chance to start their careers in a moment of great cultural openness, which allowed them to spread their wings and fly towards the endless skies of their art. I discovered in Corina Voicu’s film a tribute full of poetry, sensitivity, and warmth, and sadness at the same time, as it speaks to us about a great artist and about the genetic powerlessness of Romania when it comes to preserving and defending its values and creations, preserving and defending its monuments, churches, mansions, citadels, monasteries or memorial houses, which are destroyed in front of our eyes, in total indifference.

GIFT OF WINGS is a wonderful project, born out of the cooperation of extraordinary women.
​ And I can state that women saved Romania. After 1990, 70% of the women started businesses, they worked faster and adapted better to the changing times. The executive producer is a successful entrepreneur, a true businesswoman, one of the very few people in Romania who managed to create an extraordinary business and who understood, following the American model, that she owes it to the community to return some of the good deeds. It is a rare quality and I congratulate her for it!
​ Well, Corina Voicu invites us through her film to go to Straja, to create a human chain and to remind the authorities that we have one of the most impressive monuments in Europe and in the world, which is on the brink of crumbling due to negligence, powerlessness, and indifference. The GIFT OF WINGS has so many qualities that I think it would have been liked by a great Romanian woman, also forgotten today: Elena Vacarescu was one of the great intellectuals of our country, who defended and supported cinematography. From the stand of the Nations Society (UN today), where she was a permanent delegate, she presided over the cultural section, supporting cinema as an art, and especially documentary films. Following one of her initiatives, in Rome, in 1925, a Research Institute for Cinematography was born, and in 1936, in Paris, the famous CIDALC was created- International Committee for Diffusion of Artistic and Literary Works by the Cinematography. The first recipient of the CIDALC Award, set up by Elena Vacarescu and Nicolas Pillat, was Ion Cantacuzino, for a documentary about the Danube. Here are some pages of film history which carry us into the past, while still connecting us today, when documentaries tend to be more enjoyed than feature films, as they bring about new, real universes and talk to us about people who must not be forgotten. Coming back to the film dedicated to Pavel Bucur, whom we discover in the images brought in front of us by Corina Voicu, a film produced by Mrs. Anca Vlad, it’s a creation that spread its wings to fly around the globe… A great quality of the film is that it talks a little bit about history, too: it takes us back to the ’80s, not with rage and arrows, but to look objectively at a reality that today seems unbelievable. UTC funded a gigantic non-figurative work, in a time when everything was twisted and frozen in Romania, and censorship became insurmountable for artists: at Straja, on the shore of the Danube-Black Sea Canal a work of art was erected. The artist saw it as a tribute to the thousands of people who worked and were sacrificed there. It was his deepest thought, which he couldn’t confess back then, it was a tribute to useless martyrdom, and a protest against a time when the simple word «canal» sent shivers down Romanians’ spines.
​ The film transposes that idea into the normal times of today when the magnificent body of the statue overlooking the canal, which connects Romania to the world, must be saved! This film is a cry for help, an appeal made to the civil society and to the authorities to save it, as a post-mortem tribute in images to survive the test of time, like the monument at Straja. It is very difficult to speak about an artist whose time did not appreciate him as he deserved and I congratulate the author for her sensitivity of coming close to her character and for her love transposed into images!”

Dan Mircea Cipariu, a poet, writer, and successful publisher holding a Ph.D. in philology, founder of AgențieideCarte.ro: “The Greeks used the female figure in sculpture when they wanted to make imaginary representations and to show a poetical image of the idea of ascension and emancipation. Pavel Bucur did the same. Let us not forget that, in 1976, he unveiled a statue at Bistrita-Nasaud representing Veronica Micle, and the idea of representing flying started from a poetical image that multiplies in the artist’s works. In the case of The Monument of Youth, Winged Angel or Winged, we see the representation of femininity, and this film is a feminine undertaking also thanks to these ladies, and what is happening here tonight might lead us to a happy ending to this story. Steps were taken for Winged by Pavel Bucur to be included in the list of National Cultural Heritage Historic Monuments, but the winding road of the present is still so unreal that it could go beyond even the imagination of a technocrat. I am sure that this film will truly delight its audience and that, after watching it, we will find ourselves in a world that thinks in … lines and writes … poems.”

Corina Voicu, film director, screenwriter, producer of the GIFT OF WINGS: “Thank you for the fact that each of you who are attending the gala premiere of this documentary placed a stone, at a certain point in my life, in the foundation of my becoming who I am today. I am glad that so many personalities of the Romanian and European culture answered our call with such kindness, promptitude, and enthusiasm and were willing to take part in making this film. I want to thank the family of the three wonderful artists, Sanda Bucur, sisters Ana and Tania Bucur, who may not find in the film everything that their father, husband, friend, the man, the artist Pavel Bucur was and stood for… I could not fit such a rich universe in 60 minutes. But you will discover what I kept in my soul from what I found out from you, during the three years period that the film took to make, plus some pieces from the story of this masterpiece which is Winged. It is very difficult to find an art film producer in Romania, nowadays, and I need to thank Anca Vlad. For her, there is no such thing as “impossible.” Everything is possible! She is impressively tenacious and, most of all, she is passionate, she loves art, which is not very common, for such love is also a great burden. Confidence obliges you, makes you responsible, and gives you wings to fly!”

Together with Sanda Bucur, the wife of the regretted artist, and their daughters, Ana and Tania Bucur, the film cast, the visual artists (Vlad Ciobanu, Viorel Prater), writers, film reviewers and art critics, representatives of the National Heritage Institute, the event was attended by actors Mircea Diaconu, Emilia Popescu, Cristina Deleanu and Eugen Cristea, the orchestra conductor Răsvan Cernat, Aurelian Temișan together Monica Davidescu, Adrian Enache and his daughter, Diana, Nico, Ozana Barabancea, Marina Almășan, Alexandra Cepraga, Ingrid Vlasov, together with Noelle and Marian Nedelcu, Alex Naghi and many others.

FILDAS ART and CATENA, through the CATENA for ART programme are executive producers, while MONDOVISION MEDIA, Tonica Group, Senso TV, Senso Arte, Galeria Senso, This is INSOMNIA are the associate producers of the film.

For more information please go to:www.giftofwingsmovie.com.

The AMOS News Desk

https://www.dcnews.ro/monument-romanesc-unic-in-europa–abandonat–val-valcu–este-extraordinar-in-loc-sa-fie-exploatat–s-a-blocat-in-birocratie_829379.html

A unique monument in Europe left abandoned. Val Vâlcu: It’s unbelievable! Instead of being exploited, it got stuck in bureaucracy

Val Vâlcu drew attention to a unique monument in Europe which, because of the ignorance and powerlessness of the Romanian authorities, is now found in an advanced state of decay, while the work created by an emblematic artist could serve as a true tourist objective instead. 

“An extraordinary documentary film was screened yesterday. It was very well done, following an Occidental pattern, with fast frames, filmed with the help of a drone … Despite all that, however, everyone who was in that cinema hall remained with a not so happy feeling after seeing it. What is this all about?

It’s about a great artist, a Romanian sculptor from Bistrița-Năsăud, as good as Brâncusi was, let’s say. He created an extraordinary monument back in 1984, ordered by Nicu Ceaușescu. It’s the tallest monument in Europe measuring 40 meters in height and it’s located in a strategic position. When I saw it, I was astonished. It’s placed on the banks of the Danube-Black Sea Canal. It’s called “Winged.” I remains a mystery how they managed to make this at that time, when all orders were for realistic art.

What is clear, instead, is that the monument did not have an owner, for the Danube-Black Sea Canal doesn’t seem to want it, the Ministry of Culture also did not take it over … In the meantime the bas-reliefs were stolen, 25 tons of bronze were stolen and melted. Now they started to steal the Japanese steel the monument is made of, allowing the wind and rain to make their way inside it, damaging it’s supporting structure. Remember that it’s Dobrogea we are talking about, the monument is there, where the wind is no joke.

Instead of exploiting this statue – the authorities could have made a park there, an access road for tourists to come, for the view is impressive, with the canal and the bridges there, but it just got stuck in bureaucracy. Nothing has been done here since 2018, when Ionuț Vulpescu, I think he was the Minister of Culture back then, took a few bureaucratic steps.

I’m glad that Fildas Art resumed this topic and made this documentary. Let’s see now if the followers of the #resist movement, who tied themselves to a cement building – because it was Hala Matache – will do something to save this monument. With a couple of tin sheets and some paint on the supporting structure that stupid town hall could save it and exploit it for tourism purposes, but will it do it?”

Val Vâlcu

https://www.forbes.ro/filmul-documentar-darul-aripilor-care-castigat-3-premii-fost-lansat-romania-223090
GIFT OF WINGS documentary film, which won three awards, has been premiered in Romania
The documentary made by Corina Voicu is a feature film that tells the story of sculptor Pavel Bucur and his art monument the Winged, located on the banks of the Danube-Black Sea Canal.

The documentary film had its VIP premiere on Thursday evening at CINEMAX, with many personalities of our cultural life and protagonists of the film, visual artists, actors, film directors, writers, film and art critics, historians, representatives of the Ministry of Culture, of the National Institute for Heritage and the cultural institutions of the Capital City in attendance.

„For me, this film was a real joy, an exploration, a learning experience, a revelation, an inquiry, an adventure, a drama … It fascinated and excited me, like any mystery behind the creative work of a great artist does,” said Corina Voicu, who signed the script, directing and production of this film.

Playing the part of the executive producer of the documentary is Anca Vlad, the founder of the Fildas-Catena Group, through the FILDAS Art Foundation, for which Pavel Bucur created several impressive works: “Monumental mosaics” (ceramics – 360 sq m, 1998), “Trinity” (Ruschita marble – 2.20 m, 1999), “Carpathian Bird” (elm – 2 m, 2000), “The Holly Family” (Ruschita marble – 2.20 m, 2000) and “Germination” (Ruschita marble, 2 m – 2000)

“I knew the great sculptor, Pavel Bucur, personally, as his friend, and also as an art collector. While creating his works, he showed a lot of courage in transforming the great symbols of our national traditional culture, and the cosmogonic ones, completing them through the forms he created. Pavel Bucur belonged to the universal tradition of artists who seek to find the sense of life and death, and he remains a landmark of the modern sculpture in Romania,” Anca Vlad, the executive producer of GIFT OF WINGS, pointed out.
Between December 2020 and March 2021, the film was selected and nominated and won three awards in the BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM category.      
Pavel Bucur was born on November 1 1945, in Bistrita-Nasaud. He graduated the Fine Arts Highschool in Cluj, in 1965, and he went to the “Nicolae Grigorescu” Fine Arts Institute in 1971, the Sculpture section, Professor Ion Lucian Murnu’s class.

He participated in more than 100 national exhibitions, dozens of international exhibitions and 40 personal exhibitions, most of them in Romania, but also in Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland.
At present, there are more than 40 works of art signed by Pavel Bucur that are shown to the public in Romania and other countries such as Germany, Italy and Poland; all of them are large size works (1.20-3.80 m), made of different materials, such as fir wood, Ruschita and Carrara marble, Istria stone, calcar, stainless steel or aluminum. His works are also to be found in museums and private collections in Romania, Germany, Italy, and the US, France, Spain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece, Israel, Canada, Argentina, Belgium, Russia. In Romania, his works are displayed in Bucharest, Bacau, Buzau, Bistrita, Campina, Calafat, Dolj and Constanta, Murfatlar, Obreja or Caras-Severin etc.

One of his most famous works is the Youth Monumentum or “Winged”  (48 m in height), located on the shore of the Danube-Black Sea Canal, 9 km far from the Murfatlar (Basarabi) Town, in the area of the former Straja village.
Pavel Bucur died on September 28, 2016.

„FLYING has been always humankind’s ideal. An artist can dedicate his life to this absolute ideal. I hope that my works will teach those who look at them what flying means.” (Pavel Bucur)

Laura Cioba, Contributor

EVENTS|16/07/2021 @ 1:58 PM |

Darul aripilor | Femei de 10

When I found out last night, from a superb documentary film signed by Corina Voicu, the surprising fact that,somewhere near the Danube – Black Sea Canal rises the highest monument that has ever been built in Romania, I felt a little bit embarrassed. As a journalist, I should have known. In fact, I barely knew who the author – sculptor Pavel Bucur – was, I had only heard of him vaguely. Another minus.
And if my readers are brave and sincere people, I will probably discover that I am not the only one.
But now, one of my fellow journalists, with whom I spent a lot of time in the ’90s while working together for the national television channel TVR, is remedying the situation. The documentary signed by Corina Voicu speaks, for an hour, in a fascinating manner, about a sculptor that has the same kind of talent as Brancusi, even if he did not enjoy the latter’s success and fame. The images of his less-known works, and also the testimonies of some valuable personalities, won by his talent, shape the portrait that, unfortunately, the protagonist watches now from his loge among the stars where his spirit went, not that many years ago.

And there is something else impressive about Corina’s film. There is the staggering story, captured in images, information and documents from that time, of the famous monument, left to rise alone on the edge of the world, in a place forgotten by time, where once came to life, in a hallucinatory bustle, one of the most cheered projects of the Golden Age: the Danube-Black Sea Canal. Built “at order,” as an homage paid to the amazing effort of a generation, the “Winged of Straja” – the highest monument in Europe – today is almost a ruin, the same as many other monuments of that time.

GIFT OF WINGS documentary is in itself the fruit of very hard work.

An entire team tried torestore the truth and to return the genius author to the spot he deserves. And film critics did acknowledge him, as the production collected enough awards last year to make its authors and all those who believed in the project and invested in it proud And now we need to applaud businesswoman Anca Vlad, head manager of the CATENA Company, and one of the few businesspeople in our country choosing to invest their profit NOT in their personal comfort but in projects that do something good for the others.

And what does the GIFT OF WINGS do for us? A lot! It does postmortem justice to one of the greatest artists of this country, who was unjustly forgotten, and it is also a page from the history of our culture to the reading of which the unjust times that gather us together condemn us.

The feeling you remain with, after the film ends? Is the feeling that Pavel Bucur has become dear to you and very close to your heart, and you can’t wait to leave your city on the first occasion and go to Straja, to that empty landscape that seems to belong to a different time, to admire yourself what remained of a monumental work of art. And also to bow in front of the talent of its author, who spent the last years of his life watching the agony of ‘this child of his,” in which he invested his talent „FLYING has been always humankind’s ideal. An artist can dedicate his life to this absolute ideal. I hope that my works will teach all those who see them what flying means” – said artist Pavel Bucur, before he started his own flight to Eternity …

P.S. Congratulations to the organizers of this fancy launch tonight, at Cinemax – Veranda Mall, who gathered, in a warm and refined atmosphere, with kind-hearted people, that Corina Voicu’s film, supported by FILDAS ART Foundation and CATENA for art deserves

I have joined them and I enjoyed not only the exceptional film but also a few photos that I took with people dear to me, which will enrich my memories album.

Marina Almasan/ 16 iulie 2021

THE NATIONAL PREMIERE OF THE GIFT OF WINGS DOCUMENTARY ENJOYED GREAT SUCCESS

   The gala premiere of the Gift of Wings documentary took place at Cinemax, inside Veranda Mall, in front of a select audience, including numerous  culture, art and business personalities from our country.

   The Gift of Wings, the film by Corina Voicu, is dedicated to the sculptor Pavel Bucur and to the dramatic story of “Înaripata” (Winged),  the highest non-figurative art monument in Romania and in Europe.
   It is a film dedicated to “flight, the ultimate ideal of humankind”, as the great artist who passed away five years ago would say with a huge regret that “Winged”, which, from its 48 meter-height, has been watching over us and over the Danube – Black Sea Canal for almost four decades, passed into oblivion… he left us with the disappointment and the helplessness of not being able to stop the tragedy that valuable piece of art has been experiencing for years.
   The event took place with the support of FILDAS ART and CATENA, through the CATENA for ART Program.
   The Gift of Wings collection documentary has been launched in premiere, after having traveled to renown international documentary festivals, where it received numerous awards and great success.
   Between December 2020 and March 2021, the film, having 5 selections and nominations, received 3 important distinctions: Best Feature Documentary at the Venice Film Awards – Monthly Competition (Italy), Best Feature Film at The Monthly Film Festival (TMFF, UK) and Impact DOCS award, in the category Award of Merit Documentary (S.U.A.).
   Together with Sanda Bucur, the wife of the late artist and their daughters, Ana and Tania Bucur, the film cast, artists (Vlad Ciobanu, Viorel Prater), writers, film reviewers and art critics, representatives of the National Institute of Patrimony, the event was attended also by actors Mircea Diaconu, Emilia Popescu, Cristina Deleanu and Eugen Cristea, the orchestra conductor Răsvan Cernat, Aurelian Temișan and Monica Davidescu, Adrian Enache and his daughter, Diana, Nico, Ozana Barabancea, Marina Almășan, Alexandra Cepraga, Ingrid Vlasov, together with Noelle and Marian Nedelcu, Alex Naghi and many others.

The speakers were Anca Vlad, chairman of FILDAS Art and of  Fildas-Catena Group, the executive producer of the film, the University lecturer PhD Manuela Cernat, historian and film critic, writer, essay-writer and screenwriter, an important representative of academia and the civil society in Romania, the writer and poet Dan Mircea Cipariu and the director of the film, Corina Voicu.

  Anca Vlad, chairman of FILDAS ART and of Fildas-Catena Group, the executive producer of the Gift of Wings film: “We have been waiting to launch this film for some time and the moment is finally here! We started this cinema project out of love for art! We needed such a documentary! When I found out that the artist Pavel Bucur passed away, I experienced a very difficult period. I was a great admirer of his work, his personality and the shapes he created, and I felt that he left us much too soon, without getting the chance to finalize the projects he was working on…  His great suffering, that he would mention time and again, was «What is happening at Straja?» and «Why is the monument degrading?», «Why were the bas-reliefs stolen?», «Why won’t people realize its value?»…”
   As a form of recognition for the entire creation of Pavel Bucur for Romania, we thought of making this film. The talent and perseverance of Corina Voicu are extraordinary, so we started this journey three years ago. You will see in the documentary how the stories unfold, and you shall step in the footsteps of the artist, of his works and memories which he left behind in so many places: in Italy, at Concordia Sagittaria and Caorle, In Venice and Portogruaro, then in Bucharest, Bistrița-Năsăud, Constanta and Mogosoaia. The Gift of Wings generated many stories and from story to story, following them and linking them, an exceptional film was created.”

   The university lecturer PhD Manuela Cernat, associate professor and doctoral supervisor at UNATC Bucharest, a scientific researcher within the Art History Institute of the Romanian Academy: “I am experiencing an overwhelming emotion, as I am after such a long time in an almost full cinema theatre, at the premiere of a film dedicated to one of our country’s greatest artists, who was a friend of mine during my student years, a person whom I respected so much. This film is a tribute to the creativity of an artist who was part of a generation of giants, literally and figuratively: the sculptors Pavel Bucur and Florin Codre had the chance to start their careers in a moment of great cultural openness, which allowed them to spread their wings towards an unlimited flight of their art.
   I discovered in the film of Corina Voicu a tribute full of poetry, sensitivity and affectionate warmth, a sad one still, one which was on the brink, as it speaks to us about a great artist and about the genetic powerlessness of Romanians to preserve and defend their values and creations, to preserve and defend their monuments, churches, mansions, citadels, monasteries or memorial houses, which are destroyed in front of our eyes, in total indifference.
   The Gift of Wings is a wonderful project, born out of the collaboration of extraordinary women. I really can state that the women are those who saved Romania.  After 1990, 70% of women started businesses, they worked faster and adapted better to the changing times. The executive producer is a successful entrepreneur, a true businesswoman, one of the very few people in Romania who managed to create an extraordinary business and who thought, following the American model, that she owes it to the community to start doing good deeds for it. It is a rare quality and I congratulate her for it!

   Well, Corina Voicu invites us through her film to go to Straja, to create a human chain and to remind the authorities that we have one of the most impressive monuments in Europe and in the world, which is on the brink of crumbling due to unconcern, powerlessness and indifference. The Gift of Wings film has so many qualities that I think it would have been liked by a great Romanian woman, forgotten today: Elena Vacarescu was one of the great intellectuals of our country, who defended and supported cinematography. From the grandstand of the Nations Society (UN today), where she was a permanent delegate, she presided over the cultural section, supporting cinema as an art, and especially documentary films.  Following one of her initiatives, in in 1925 in Rome, a Research Institute for Cinematography was established and in 1936, in Paris, the famous CIDALC – International Committee for Diffusion of Artistic and Literary Works by the Cinematography – was created. The first recipient of CIDALC Award, set up by Elena Vacarescu and Nicolas Pillat, was Ion Cantacuzino, for a documentary about the Danube. Here are some pages of film history which carry us into the past, still connecting us today, when documentaries worldwide tend to be more enjoyed than fiction movies, as they bring about new, real universes and tell us about people who must not be forgotten.
   I’ll get back to the film dedicated to Pavel Bucur, one we discover through the images brought in front of us by Corina Voicu, a film produced by Mrs. Anca Vlad, a creation spread around the globe… A great quality of the film is that it tells us a little bit about history too: it takes us back to the 80s, not with rage and arrows, but by looking objectively at a reality which today seems unbelievable. UTC funded a gigantic non-figurative work in a moment when everything cringed and froze in Romania, and censorship became insurmountable for artists: at Straja, on the bank of the Danube – Black Sea Canal, a work of art was erected. The artist saw it as a tribute to the thousands of people who worked and were martyred there. It was his deepest thought, not confessed then, it was a tribute to useless martyrdom, and his protest against the times when the simple word «canal» sent shivers down Romanians’ spines.
The film brings an idea into normal times, when the magnificent body of the statue overlooking the canal which connects Romania to the world must be saved! This film is a cry for help, an appeal made to the civil society and to the authorities to save it, as a post-mortem tribute which will linger, like the monument at Straja.  It is very difficult to speak about an artist whom those times did not appreciate as he would have deserved, and I congratulate the author for her sensitivity of coming close to her character and for her love rendered into pictures!”

   Dan Mircea Cipariu, a philology PhD, poet, writer and successful editorialist, founder of AgențieideCarte.ro: “The Greeks used the female figure in sculpture when they wanted to make imaginary representations (and a poetical image) of the idea of ascension and emancipation. Pavel Bucur did the same. Let us not forget that in 1976, he unveiled at Bistrita-Nasaud a statue representing Veronica Micle, and the idea of presenting flight started from a poetical image which is a multiplying one among the artist’s works.  In case of The Monument of Youth, Winged Angel or Winged, we see the representation of femininity, and this film is a feminine undertaking and because of these ladies, what is happening tonight might lead us to a story with a happy ending. Steps were taken for Winged by Pavel Bucur to be included in the list of National Culture Patrimony of Historic Monuments, but the winding road of the present is still so unreal that it could go beyond the imagination of a technocrat. I am sure that this film will cause clear delight upon viewing and that after it, we could find ourselves in a world that thinks in… poem lines and writes in… poems.”

   Corina Voicu, director, screenwriter, producer of the Gift of Wings film: “Thank you, each of you who are attending the gala premiere of this documentary, in a certain moment of my life, you placed a stone to my foundation. I am delighted that, when finishing this construction, I received kind, gentle, prompt and enthusiastic help from huge personalities of the Romanian and European culture, willing to take part in making this film.
   I want to thank the family consisting of three wonderful artists, Sanda Bucur, sisters Ana and Tania Bucur, who maybe will not find in the film everything the father, husband, friend, the man, the artist Pavel Bucur stood for… I could not fit such a rich universe in just 60 minutes. But you shall discover what I have kept in my soul from what I found out from you during these three years, and also some pieces of the story of this masterpiece which is Winged.
   Today, it is very difficult to find an art film producer in Romania, and I need to thank Anca Vlad. For her, there is no such thing as “impossible”. Everything is possible! She is overwhelmingly tenacious and, most of all, she is passionate, she loves art, which is not such a common thing, and such a love is a great burden. Confidence obliges you, makes you responsible and gives you wings to fly!”.

   FILDAS ART and CATENA, through the CATENA for ART Program are executive producers, and the associate producers of the film are MONDOVISION MEDIA, Tonica Group, Senso TV, Senso Arte, Galeria Senso, This is INSOMNIA.

DAN MIRCEA CIPARIU
20 iulie 2021

Monica Davidescu and Aurelian Temisan together with Doru Spataru, the first cameraman wich took images in Pavel Bucur’s workshop. The workshop was in Aurel Vlaicu street during the sculptor was pouring the model of Winged Monument of Straja.

25 november 2021

GIFT OF WINGS BACK TO VENICE

   The GIFT OF WINGS movie team was invited to Venice to celebrate Romania’s National Day.

   On this occasion, GIFT OF WINGS movie was officially designated to represent Romania, in Italy, for the celebration of the National Day of Romanian Culture, on 15 january 2022.

   The statement was made by Phd. Grigore Arbore, Director of the Romanian Institute of Humanistic Culture and Research “ Nicolae Iorga” in Venice.

   The ceremony to celebrate Romania’s National Day took place in a fabulous art location, the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista in Venice, a historic ensemble that carries within its walls the tradition of eight centuries of Venetian art and spirituality.

27 DECEMBER 2021, VENICE
BACK TO VENICE
The GIFT OF WINGS movie team was invited to Venice to celebrate Romania’s National Day.
On this occasion, GIFT OF WINGS movie was officially designated to represent Romania, in Italy, for the celebration of the National Day of Romanian Culture, on 15 january 2022.
The statement was made by Phd. Grigore Arbore, Director of the Romanian Institute of Humanistic Culture and Research “ Nicolae Iorga” in Venice.
The ceremony to celebrate Romania’s National Day took place in a fabulous art location, the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista in Venice, a historic ensemble that carries within its walls the tradition of eight centuries of Venetian art and spirituality.

Corina Voicu
Director of “Gift of Wings”movie
„When we first came to Venice for an interview with Academician Grigore Popescu Arbore for our film “Gift of Wings” we did not imagine that we would also return to Venice as winners (I was right, I rang the bells!). We received the “Best Feature Documentary” award at the Documentary Film Festival “Venice Film Awards”.
This is where the international story of our film began and this is where it returns, like a round destiny.
We are happy to be the guests of honor this year for the celebration of Romania’s National Day in Venice.
And we are happy to present “Gift of Wings” movie through IRCCU Nicolae Iorga to the Italian cultural elite in Veneto and the largest community of Romanians in Italy.
“Gift of Wings” movie was awarded in December 2020 at VENICE FILM AWARDS. And this year, the documentary was chosen by IRCCU Nicolae Iorga from Venice to represent Romania on the occasion of the National Day of Romanian Culture.

VENICE – the history of all sophisticated tales begins in this frothy lagoon settlement.
In this bohemian and flamboyant Venice, the sculptor Pavel Bucur, the fabulous character of our movie “ GIFT OF WINGS” made his entrance in the artistic circles of the time.
Here in Venice, Pavel Bucur made friends for life, dedicated himself to his vocation and also created a stable workshop, not far away, at Concordia Sagittaria.

In a world place of Romanian culture created by the historian Nicolae Iorga, the IRCCU of Venice, and which has a tradition of over 150 years, an elite team of Romanian researchers, studies the history of cultural relations between Romania and Italy and creates opportunities for the development of these relations.
The poet, writer, professor and art historian Grigore Arbore was a lifelong friend of the sculptor Pavel Bucur and a fine observer and a very good connoisseur of the phenomenon of contemporary Romanian sculpture.

PRESS RELEASE
Professor Dr.GRIGORE ARBORE , Phd
Director of IRCCU Nicolae Iorga, Venice
„On the occasion of the NATIONAL DAY OF ROMANIAN CULTURE, the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice will present a splendid film entitled GIFT OF WINGS, a film dedicated to an exceptional sculptor, a man who is very well-known in many countries of Europe, which has left a lasting mark on the Romanian art of sculpture in recent decades: Pavel Bucur.
“GIFT OF WINGS” is a title inspired by a monumental work, “THE WINGED”, as there are few in the world, which is located on the banks of the Danube Canal – Black Sea in Dobrogea, and which still writes history.
The film is very, very interesting and is a testament to the frantic circulation of Pavel Bucur’s works in Europe and in exhibitions in the country.
In fact, his last workshop was at the Concordia Saggitarium, near Venice, between Venice and Trieste, a historic town, a Romanian town, where he has developed in recent years, numerous works of small sculpture and made interesting projects that is already the subject of research undertaken by art historians.
I hope that in this way we will make known to the public, to those who have not had the opportunity to meet him so far, an artist of great value, whose name will undoubtedly enter the deserved place in the Romanian history of sculpture and fine arts.”

Letter of thanks from the Consul General of Romania in Trieste
(to Corina Voicu and the film “Gift of Wings”).

Dear Madam,

Thank you for the emotions experienced on the occasion of Romania Day in Venice. It is a great joy to relive those moments that, surely and thanks to you, were loaded with symbolism and full of a success that we all wanted.
It is an honor and also a pleasure to meet you.
Happy Christmas!

Cosmin Victor Lotreanu
Consul General

CONSOLATO GENERALE DI ROMANIA a Trieste – Repubblica Italiana