Programme: Recovery and Resilience Plan

The project proposal envisages the presentation in the form of screenings, accompanied by a lecture-discussion panel, of three videos by "Village Dion". Village Dion is an alternative cultural product consisting of three music videos, the aim of which is to present, through the means of music and cinema, a foreigner's perception of Bulgaria. The main "culprit" Ethan is an American who falls in love with a Bulgarian girl, and then in Bulgaria. He decides to stay here and create. He has recorded several songs, but the purpose of his music is not commercial, on the contrary - the artist's idea is to present, through the prism of comedy, how a foreigner adapts to such a different culture as the Balkan one. His work is dedicated to the clash, in the best sense of the word, between American and Bulgarian culture and represents a direct parallel with Aleko Konstantinov, whose famous literary work “Bai Ganyo” tells about the clash of Bulgarian and American culture through the eyes of a Bulgarian.
The truth is that we have many cultural products that explore the Bulgarian mentality in a cultural clash with the foreign one, but so far we have not explored how foreigners accept us and our culture. We believe that with the means of music this will be a very good way to introduce the Bulgarian viewer to “himself” through the eyes of a foreigner.
We draw attention to the fact that although the works are presented as a trilogy of 3 music videos on a different current social topic, at its core the project presents an alternative cultural product, not a commercial one. Ethan himself does not aim for commercialism through his music, but rather to be the voice of foreigners in Bulgaria. It is no coincidence that Ethan also chooses to introduce himself under the pseudonym Peasant Dion - with a big wink to those Bulgarians who are ashamed of their origin.