The Quarantine Film Festival
Varna, Bulgaria
“The Quarantine” is an international short film festival aimed at popularizing young and unknown authors among professional filmmakers’ circles. The festival is organized on completely voluntary basis, there are no screening fees and nobody receives any payment.
The festival takes place on the beach at “The Quarantine” fishing village which is the last standing fishing village in Varna, Bulgaria. The village is in danger of disappearing because a luxury residential complex is under construction on the coastline behind it. By provoking cultural exchange between contemporary artists from the whole world and locals, we intend to turn the fishing village into a culture and art zone and to preserve the fishermen’s way of life.
The name of the region “The Quarantine” comes from the past when sailors from commercial ships entering the harbour with suspicion of some kind of disease were taken ashore at the beach for the quarantine period of 40 days. In case they showed no signs of illness, they were allowed access to town. At present, the young authors who have still not found their realisation are in the state of a “Quarantine” – isolated by professional filmmakers’ circles. In analogy to the history of the location, we decided to name the festival “The Quarantine”.