Project Type
Client-commissioned

Agency
Cheil Romania

Client Name
ANAIS Association

Client URL
https://unquietvoices.com/

My Role in This Project
“Unquiet Voices” is the first pro-bono project we did for ANAIS, an NGO which fights domestic violence. It was also the first project I’ve worked on from a double role: both as an AD and as newly promoted ACD.

Domestic abuse has always moved me on a personal level, and as a creative I wanted to help find an idea that helps victims tell their stories in an appealing way. So when silent movies lost their copyright in 2019, I thought it was a great opportunity to use them in an unexpected way. Unquiet Voices came to life – a movie where 7 domestic violence victims gave their voices to abused characters in silent movies, for the first time in 100 years.

The campaign kicked off with a one-month documenting phase, with me and my team-mate talking to abuse victims in order to understand their stories. I got deeply involved on a personal level as I spent many weeks at ANAIS’ shelter talking to domestic abuse victims about their stories and struggles as part of the research for the movie.

After the first phase was done, I also co-directed the whole movie based on the footage we had available and the stories we’ve just collected. Then, because we lacked the necessary resources, I took over the role of an editor and edited about 90% of the entire movie. The process lasted about 7 months and it was both time consuming and challenging as I didn’t have a background in movie making.

Furthermore, I was also the one who has actively searched for sponsorships and donations to help us launch the movie in one of the most prestigious cinema halls of Bucharest and then I contacted a famous art gallery and convinced to display the movie in an experimental art exhibition.

Project Description
Context:
In Romania, only 1% of victims of domestic violence victims ask for help because the society judges them harshly. When it comes to domestic violence, most Romanians have very biased points of view, such as “women are always looking for it” or “it’s her fault, she’s not obedient” etc. But that should not surprise us. The world has a long history of closing its eyes to domestic violence. And several industries have been normalising abuse towards women. If you look at the film industry, you cannot deny the crucial role it plays in education. We simply do what we see in the movies.
Several industries have normalised abuse towards women – and the film industry is no stranger to this. Silent films have been hiding scenes of abuse towards women under the mask of entertainment for almost 100 years.

Idea:
Dozens of these silent movies lost their copyrights on January 2019, so ANAIS wanted to turn them into a brand new cinematographic product- one that would inspire the new generation to speak up. This was the mission of “Unquiet Voices” - a 40-minute movie in which 7 victims of domestic violence break the silence and give voice to abused characters in silent movies. We took images from 7 different silent movies and created a movie split in 7 chapters. We matched the images with a victim's real story and then rearranged the scenes to fit the victim’s narrative. The voice of real victims was overlapped on the footage to unsilence every violent scene.

Results:
The response to the movie was overwhelming and it has won several accolades including a Gold and Silver LIA, a D&AD pencil, multiple Cannes Lion shortlists and even got screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. The movie is now being used as educational material in schools,