Dragolea Mihai Gavril

Biography

With a masters degree on Contemporary Video Art and a specialisation on documentary filmmaking, five years experience in  the audiovisual sector, in 2013 I took the decision to focus mainly on directing creative documentaries. My main objective is to explore the potential of using documentary form as a social impact and educational tool. Being a nomad myself, travelling around the world and exploring human stories is his motivation for creating cinematic narratives that speaks of social issues.

My interest in telling stories made me co-direct, edit and co-shoot my first documentary, the Golden Robot, with Radu Constantin Mocanu. This first feature film, created only by our own personal means, made me seek out new stories to tell, trying to express feelings as best as I can using my camera and editing skills. My interests are telling the stories of those who can't be heard, of marginal people and subcultures, of those who mainstream society doesn't know much about and who they resent due to lack of understanding. 

I started my second project, PhoeniXXX shortly after finishing the distribution work for Golden Robot. The project was developed in the Astra Sibiu Romanian Docs in Progress programme. I finished the new film all by myself due to the delicate nature of the profilmic subject. Seeing the  humanity in the live chat industry girls lives, I tried to stay true to my characters and give the audience a real feel of what their motifs and drives are. The film also speaks about the situation of mono-industrial cities that got forgotten by the new, high tech driven capitalism and about the way internet gets to shape our most private life corners. 

Together with Radu Mocanu I started a documetnary production company, Vagabond Film. Currently all our productions are produced by our independent firm.

I am a UBB film School graduate, I have a MA degree at the Romanian National Art University, I studied one year in Istanbul being enrolled in an Erasmus programme and I am also an Berlinale Short Film Station Talent Campus Alumni. These institutions,helped me develop into a filmmaker and showed me I can do this great job.