whispers of old stories

Stones and their Whispers of old Stories

We are part of a small group of filmmakers and artists. For almost a year, we have been working on the short film «Stones and their Whispers of Old Stories.» In our film, we explore ancient myths, legends, and stories of the Wallis Mountains in Switzerland and the Transylvanian Mountains in Romania. We engage in many conversations, listen, and meet with various people from the mountain regions. Together with dancers, we reinterpret and interpret what we discover.

What interests us is that stories always emerge where change occurs. We are intrigued by the fact that the need for meaningful narratives grows wherever such changes take place. Thus, we understand the Wallis legends and myths as a dialogue of people with their environment.

We have already completed the first filming block in Romania in the summer of 2023. The filming in Wallis is scheduled for April. For this, we need your financial support to realize our project. We are grateful for every contribution.

Our goal is to produce a 20-minute short film that we would like to exhibit in Wallis and Romania. Additionally, we aim to submit it to short film festivals.

Instead of pitting old perspectives against contemporary viewpoints, we connect them and emphasize the relevance of mythology and the mythological aspects of the present.

Stories / Interviews

How relevant are these narratives today? Even the smallest companies use the terms «narration» and «storytelling» excessively, so it seems that we are living in a time where stories are of great importance.

But are we really telling stories? Are we really listening?

Stories function differently from the transmission of information. They possess the art of omitting details, leaving room for interpretation, thus involving the listeners in the storytelling process. This unique dimension of stories makes them a fundamental part of communities and their rituals. Our endeavor is to listen attentively once again, to discover which stories have endured time. With our film, we aim to try to retell these ancient stories and draw knowledge from the depths of time, leaving room for the viewer’s interpretation.

Our focus is on the stories from the Wallis Mountains and Transylvania. In these stories, the environment is often described not as something given or passive, but as an active participant, a partner with whom we engage. This raises the question of how we position ourselves to the stories today. We want to shape new narrative moments that examine stories from a contemporary perspective, much like David Dragan and Noah Kohlbrenner do in their artistic work.

Dance

The project utilizes dance as a means to reinterpret the myths and stories uncovered during the research and collection phase. These narratives are choreographed and interwoven into a vibrant landscape with five contemporary dancers in Transylvania and Wallis. David Dragan, performer and choreographer, leads this journey, blending elements of movement and improvisation with storytelling. Inspired by the paintings of Noah Kohlbrenner, the project aims to translate narration into dance, creating a interplay between movement and spoken word in the film. To achieve this, the dancers will wear costumes that bridge the gap between the original and the contemporary. In this way, they become both interprets and storytellers, with each movement representing a chapter contributing to the larger narrative. Viewed as a whole, these different movement chapters come together as an ensemble of narratives, like a book of movement, connecting Transylvanian and Wallisian mythology and highlighting the deep connections between these two cultural landscapes.