On the 30th anniversary of the Romanian revolution, Softly in All Directions departs on an intimate journey into the reverberations of Romania’s past. A kaleidoscope of stories uncovers a dark history of repression against citizens who questioned an inhumane regime while following young LGBTQ Romanians who are targets of a new campaign of discrimination. The film constructs a mosaic of memory and imagination, moving fluidly between the communist era and contemporary moment, revealing strategies of resistance and survival shared across generations. Amidst a rising wave of populism and widespread homophobia, Softly in All Directions reflects our remarkable capacity to heal from past traumas and imagine livable futures.

About The Team

Anna Barsan is a filmmaker and artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Anna’s work has been featured at Sundance, HotDocs, Camden International Film Festival, Rooftop Films Summer Series, The Brooklyn Museum, Leslie Lohman Museum, La Mama Galleria and published by Field of Vision, The New Yorker, NBC and Democracy Now. Her latest short film, Libre, investigates the use of GPS ankle monitors by private companies and screened in the Documentary Shorts Program at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. To date, Libre has over 1 million online views and has screened in more than twenty festivals both nationally and internationally. Anna is a former supervising producer at The Laura Flanders Show and facilitated workshops in filmmaking and live video performance at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit from 2015-2016. Anna is currently at work on her first feature film, Softly in All Directions, with support from Field of Vision and the Sundance Institute.