“1989 – Images of change”: European Prize Winners
Marchela GEORGIEVA
Marchela GEORGIEVA (18, high school student in Ruse, Bulgaria) submitted a video entry entitled Im Kampf für das Leben. Using excerpts from existing documentary films, newspaper articles, photos and oral narratives, she presents the formation of the first civic organizations in the late 1980s in Ruse. The entry narrates the initiative of 6 women from Ruse, who expressed their ecological concerns and organized in 1987-1989 public protests against industrial pollution endangering their children as well as the life of all citizen. These peaceful protests became the catalyst for the development of the human rights movement in Bulgaria, which undermined the communist rule in the country and contributed to its demise in 1989-1990. The International Jury appreciated both the technical accomplishment of the video entry, and the way the author expressed the significance of the ecologic and civic activism for the democratic development of Bulgaria.
