The Grand Budapest Meeting
Written by Shezray Hamid
For the DocNomads, Budapest has always been a place of annual reunion. Every February, those who can make their pilgrimage to where it all once happened. Here, hosted by the University of Theatre and Film Arts (SZFE), are held three days of screenings of the Lisbon and Brussels student films. On this occasion, alumni are warmly welcomed to play the audience. Later on, the alumni also present new projects they are currently working on. Due to these annual exchanges, the network of the various graduating classes has been expanding. A collective wish to continue to grow whilst keeping this strong network was soon realised and the tangible form of this idea started to reveal its shape in a shared sense of belonging.
As a group consisting of the first five graduating classes of DocNomads, we started to realize a space for our collective dreams with our combined imagination and individual experiences. We also started to form committees within the greater group that could specifically research into different areas in order to realize this common space. The committees formed were the DNA (DocNomads Association), Producers/Communications, Geographic Location, Vision/Mission, Economic Model and External Funds.
We started to share our ideas in a Facebook group and a Google Drive, platforms used to our advantage as we communicated with each other from different parts of the globe. The committees had self-organised online meetings forming their agendas and delegations within their groups. Soon after realising that this was not an exclusive space, we also wished to open the idea to the new graduating classes of DocNomads who share the need for such a collective.
Naanu is a word with many meanings. It came about when traveling to places in groups and saying it as a good feeling conclusion of something, a choice or decision, like taking a particular path off a road. Much like a tribal cry. In Arabic, it means ‘we’ and seems to have different meanings in various languages. In Hindi, Bengali and Urdu it means “grandmother”. In Persian, it means “hammock”. It is an Orkan greeting, similar to hello. It has many ancient implications, in Sanskrit, it meant “certainly”. Learning that many languages give vibration to this sound made the group sing and shine.
In February of 2018, we would organize the second meeting in Budapest. Here, the committees were to present their research so far to the active members and others that are interested to join. The idea was to recap on the progress that has been made whilst being apart and to as a group meet and decide how to reach consensus and take steps to move forward.
On the 11th of February, 38 DocNomads members met to discuss this imagined common space at the SZFE university. Along with this, we had 7 members join us from their homes via teleconferencing.
After the meeting was adjourned, it felt like the first seeds of Naanu were starting to sprout, our spirits were ablaze and the possibilities were turning into reality.
