The Hidden Face is an interactive documentary on depression, as seen and hidden in Bucharest, 2016. The documentary presents the confessions of 15 persons of different age and sex from Bucharest, arisen as consequence of an organizing and selection process of a video archive of about 80 hours.

As consequence of the research, we propose three methods of visualizing the documentary. First, there were The People, each of them, with a profile page including their stories. The Themes group their answers according to the questions pursued during the interviews, cover depression-related important thematic and offer, as well, the short version of the documentary. The listed tags have resulted from analyzing the content of the selected excerpts, representing recurrent ideas and words used by the interviewed persons. They represent a language of depression, a unitary voice of the majority which we haven’t actually pursued during the documentation process, but which appeared after the content analysis.
The Hidden Face is the result of a research developed along one year and a half. The video documentation pursued the exploration of personal stories related to depression, dramatized within the multimedia theater show, In Between Two Pills (March 2016). As consequence of this step, a video archive emerged, gathering tens of hours of interviews with persons of different age and sex from Bucharest. This archive triggered the need of a dedicated project, both due to the complexity of the confessions as well as to the real need, at that time in Romania, to open a public discussion about depression.

The documentary was premiered through a series of live audio-video performances during which Cinty Ionescu and Sorin Păun Randomform mixed the content of the documentary in real time.



The Team
Cinty Ionescu – initiator, video documentarist, coordinator
Maria Năstase – visual antropolog, analysis consultant and content structuring
Iancu Barbărasă – designer
Sorin Păun randomform – sound designer
youngminds – web agency
Adi Tudose – photographer
Carmen Tărniceru – translator
Ioana Gheorghiță – strategic planner
Ioana Haghiac – project assistant
Project co-funded by the City Hall of Bucharest through ARCUB.
Partners: Fundația Estuar, Clubul Țăranului
Media partners: Radio România Cultural, Decât o revistă, Sub25, Veioza Arte