The project Orpheus is a short experimental documentary that merges poetry with observational filmmaking. The poem delves into the vile condition of being a woman in an unkind world, directing blame at two figures for the speaker’s pain: first, Orpheus, for failing to sing well enough to transform the world for the better; and second, the speaker’s own mother, for not burning the world down because of it.
In the film, the writer takes on the role of a filmmaker. She persuades her mother to pose for her, capturing intimate footage in the dining room as her mother listens to the poem for the first time. The camera focuses on her reactions, creating a raw and vulnerable moment.
Orpheus reveals the unspoken barriers between pain inflicted by societal sexual inequalities and the inherent, stark cruelty of existence. It also reflects on the plight of those who lovingly bring life into the world, hoping for their children’s happiness, only to witness them struggle.
Ultimately, the film is a dialogue between mother and daughter—simple, straightforward, and implacable.
The project is part of the subthemes Re-imagining identity through poetry, Technopoetics - AI, Digital Media and the Future of Creativity, Healing Narratives - Poetry, Mental Health and Collective Trauma, Cultural Resilience - Literature as a force for social justice.
Author
Urša Majcen
Urša Majcen (1998) is a graduate of Dramaturgy and Performing Arts at AGRFT. She is currently pursuing a dual master's program in Dramaturgy and Performing Arts and Screenwriting. She works as a practical dramaturg, dramatist, screenwriter, performer and poet.
She received the academic Prešeren Award for her thesis, and her play was nominated for the Slavko Grum Award in 2022. As a dramaturg, she has worked on several productions, including Scream: The First Voice, which was awarded the University Prešeren Award and two Zlata paličica awards. She is also a member of the Reaktor collective, which continues to address socio-critical themes. Her poetry, dramatic works, reviews, and academic texts have been published in all relevant printed and on-line magazines in the country, and in several international publications in the ex YU area. Several short films have been made based on her screenplays, several of her dramatic works have been stage-read within The Week od Slovenian Drama and in National Theatre Drama Ljubljana. She is one of the founders of Academic Blog, where she was also an editor for three years. For several years, she occasional lead theater, playwriting and film youth workshops (also part of the Liberty project of Creative Europe) and participated in the student projects that promoted reading to children. She regularly reads her poetry at alternative, feminist, LGBT or other subversive cultural events. Her poetry has been awarded the Župančičeva frulica award (2017), and she has been a multiple finalist at Urška competition and the Poetry Tournament, where her video poetry (2023) was awarded. She has also received several positive reviews in various notable media. She contributed editorial oversight and a foreword to Dejan Koban's poetry collection The Most Idiotic Autobiography in the World and Beyond, which was selected for the Pranger festival and Lenart Sušnik’s poetry book Napalm. Her poetry has been published in several anthologies, such as the O’brk and Ignor festival anthologies, the anthology The Word of Rebellion, and the notable anthology of young poets God Jerks Off on Us. In 2023, she was featured in the international anthology Manuscripts, which brings together the best poetic voices from the former Yugoslavia, several years before in Serbian Mašta I snovi antology. In May 2021, her first video installation was exhibited at the ŠKUC Gallery as part of the Preveč project and was later showcased in October of the same year at the Media Nox Gallery in Maribor. In 2022, she presented her feminist dramatic text and AV installation Girl at the Borštnikovo Srečanje festival, which later toured Slovenia as a short film. She recently presented her video performance Looks at the Ignor festival and also in mid-April at the ŠKUC Gallery. Her experimental short films I’m Listening to You (2023) and Orpheus (2023) were selected and screened at the FSVP film festival in Kamnik in 2024, and I’m Listening to You was also featured at the Radio Student Film Festival 2023. Her poetry debut, a collection titled Ecosystem of Silence, was published on December 29, 2021, before that she was published in the book of three authors, her section being titled Wolves Don’t Have Bloodthirsty Eyes. Her first bigger dramatic work and its adaptation into a screenplay for the short animated film The Tale of the Copper King were published in May 2023, most of her shorter plays can be found on sigledal.org website. She is also founder and member of alternative and provocative dadistic-surrealistic performative-poetic group trup/a (bodies). At the moment she is working on a few theater productions, two new plays and hopefully, new poetry collection.
