My favourite of all the footage I recorded overseas. This is one for listening as well as looking.
I stood in front of the house I was staying in, on the outskirts of the Romanian village of Botiza, and watched the town's herd come in from the hills. In a very unassuming manner, it was the most transcendental moment of all my travels.
Musicians at a wedding in the Romanian village of Desesti, playing traditional music of the Maramures region. These guys were having a break, waiting for the church service to end, and put on a special show for me!
A traditional Romanian wedding procession through the streets of the Maramures village of Desesti. Eddie, a guest at the wedding who spoke excellent English, explains the meaning of some of the ceremonial rites.
Maria serves lunch in the home of the Lapuzan family in Botiza, where I stayed for a few nights. All the food is farmed or made in the village: the horinca (fruit brandy), ciorba (pork and potato soup), bread, sausages, rice - everything. Afterwards, her children Vasili and Maria model some traditional Maramures clothes, made by Maria herself.
Music video for 'The Thief' by Floyd Thursby & The Definite Article, directed by Cris Jones. Song taken from Floyd Thursby's debut album 'A Thief's Journal' out 2007 on Ang Fang Industries.
www.floydthursby. com
www.myspace.com/f loydthursbymusic
A morning walk around the Romanian village of Desesti in the Mara Valley, Maramures County. Some footage of the Pensiunea Anca, where I stayed, and of the UNESCO heritage-listed church at Harnicesti.
In September 2006 I visited the 500 year old monastery at Vorone? outside the town of Gura Humorului in southern Bucovina, Romania. The monastery is painted inside and out with some of the most extraodinary frescoes, depicting historical events and religious iconography.
I shot this footage while staying in the house of the family Lapuzan in the Romanian village of Botiza, Maramures. Vasili and Maria play a video game. You can see their parents through the window working in the farmyard. The TV plays the usual Romanian pop music videos. An interesting - but entirely complementary - mix of the traditional and the contemporary.
Undaunted by Sighisoara's association with vampires and other scary creatures, I bravely venture into the Transylvanian village's ancient Saxon graveyard.
