Dorin Babeu - the youngest winner of The Excellence Award on a worldwide level, at the Tokyo Video Festival “TVF 2007”, sponsored by JVC

Dorin Babeu (13), pupil of the St. Iacob School in Câmpulung Muscel, is the child who realized the video material "The Saplings" during the workshop “One Minute of Adolescence” - Satic 2006, organized by Signis Romania, in partnership with Unicef România. He is the lucky winner of an Excellence Award in the Tokyo Video Festival.




ABOUT DREAMS, REALITY AND FICTION

I had never really thought I would ever travel to Japan. Maybe I had only dreamed of it. But since God never sleeps, my dream actually came true. It was not to be left behind; it started rolling out in front of me, as an incredible fairy tale. My travel to the faraway land of Japan started in Muscel. It was snowing as if we were in a poem by Esenin, althought it was the end of February and of a - so far - mild and snowless winter.
The next stage was leaving Otopeni by plane. Shortly after taking off, I saw the beautiful Carpathians Mountains. Together with my mother, who was traveling with me, I tried to find the peaks of Piatra Craiului, a mountain very dear to me. It is at the bottom of this mountain that I go to the Satic summer camp, every year. It was there that God bestowed His gift on me, inspiring me to create the film "The Saplings’, that got me traveling the world. It was not only the work of God, as some other special people also got involved; I think about them all the time, and I would really like to thank them: Father Petru Păuleţ, who enabled this camp and who has been my constant support; Marius Şopterean, director and excelling teacher, who provided me with extraordinary motivation, support and guidance into the secrets of the video art; Doru Niţescu, who was always there for us, as well as Rodica Buzoianu, Anca Berlogea and Lucia Soci, with their pleasant company and support.

As I was selected for my film, "The Saplings", I went to the 29th edition of the video festival in Tokyo, "T.V.F. 2007", sponsored by the Japanese Victor Company (JVC). T.V.F. is the largest video festival, held on an annual basis in Japan. It was established in 1978, to increase awareness of video art. The festival is opened to both professionals and amateurs, regardless of nationality or age. The only condition is for the film to be recorded on tape. All topics are accepted.

The festival attracted a record-number of films - 3,491 registered for the competition this year, coming from 55 countries and regions around the world (841 from Japan and 2,650 from other countries). However, there were only 100 nominees. Most of them were students or young professionals, around 21 years old. The oldest was 87, and the youngest - that was myself - was only 12. This was the first unusual thing: although I was so young, I got nominated.

This year's rule imposed creators to send out a clear and expressive message by means of their film. The subjects were various and well supported. This is why the jury found it very difficult to choose, even when they got to the final. For the first time in the history of T.V.F, the jury decided to award not only one, but more distinctions. This was the second unusual thing: I was also one of these exceptions to the rule, as I got an Excellence Award.

In Japan, together with students, teachers, directors, script writers, writers, educators, clerks, producers, cameramen, retired people and video artists, I lived the experience of diverse thinking, strong culture and the power of God in bringing us together as a pleasant gathering, discussing topics with contemporary relevance for various cultures and the civil society.

My small film (one minute) has had a small contribution to this world's diversity of thinking. This also made our country known, as Asia only has little information about Romania: they know almost nothing about us, as one of the festival hosts confessed.

Raya Ribbius from the European Cultural Foundation was also with me in Tokyo, as the person who supported my participation in this festival. I would like to extend my thanks to her, as well.

Too bad I was not able to share my experience with other children of my age!