Mihai Catalin Cazacu is a Romani-Romanian filmmaker with a particular passion for cinematography, especially the documentary style, and fine arts photography. He started his career in communications and PR, but then decided to pursue his dreams and joined filmmaker Katalin Bársony’s Romedia team. He began as a team member of the award-winning documentary series Mundi Romani and as part of the production team on the feature film 3Brothers. In addition, he has produced several short documentary films and commercials for major companies and NGOs in Romania. In 2013, he became a member of the International Romani Film Commission (IRFC). Beyond his work related to the realities of the Romani community, he is a successful professional, creating prize-winning spots, short commercials and mini-series. As a fellow Roma and a human-rights activist, Cazacu is dedicated to promoting Roma rights and is actively engaged in human-rights projects.

One of his movies, Mo Drom (My Way), is a documentary film that tackles Roma-related issues from a highly unusual perspective. The documentary centres on a Roma family from Bicaz, Romania, who have chosen to educate themselves, live within a non-Roma community and embrace its lifestyle, yet without abandoning their Roma cultural values or hiding the fact that they are Roma. The film has a relaxed atmosphere and the family members actually play the music used for the soundtrack, thus making it easier for the viewers to understand their perspective and various other issues. The film was produced in August 2014 and was then broadcast on Romanian public television channel TVR in November 2014.

References

http://blackhat.ro/en/content/documentary-my-way-mo-drom

Filmography – Documentaries

2018 Vinul Regilor (The Wine of Kings)
2014 Mo Drom (My Way)
2014 Life with Multiple Sclerosis
2015–2016 ACCESS Programme, a series of 4 mini-documentaries for World Vision and
Motivation Foundation
2014 Roma in Norway, producer, director, scriptwriter
2014 Europe’s Hidden Shame, documentary broadcast by Al Jazeera

Photography

2014 ‘Portrait of a Chronic Patient’

Spots

2016 ‘Medullary Injury Prevention: The Plunge’
2016 ‘Don’t Leave Anyone Behind’

TV Adverts and commercial productions

2014 ‘The Carpenter’
2014 ‘The Seamstress’
2016 ‘Huawei – Orange’
2016 ‘I can’
2015 ‘EY 2014 Results and Onward Strategy’
2014 ‘The Coalition of Organisations for Patients with Chronic Diseases’
2016–2017 ‘Insert Campaign’