Pages of My Book

Galya Stoyanova's participation in the civil rights movement helped her to develop a film project in which she narrates over visuals depicting the process of Romani self-acceptance in the context of modern urban life. In the film, Galya walked around emblematic and famous settings in Budapest while wearing the traditional clothes of Romani women and holding a camera in her hands, taking pictures of people walking on the streets. In the five-minute short film, two kinds of material alternate: black-and-white stills, taken by Galya herself, and moving images in colour, made by her supporting team. In the former images we see strangers facing Galya’s camera, while in the latter, Galya herself is the protagonist as a flaneur who walks on the streets: contemplating, taking pictures and sometimes talking with people.