Yesterday (March 28, 2017) the premiere of the documentary film “DAGA – Stories in Pictures” was presented within the framework of the “International Sofia Film Fest”. The screening began with a short presentation by the director Maria Nikolova, who thanked the entire team and everyone who helped make the film.
“DRAGON” magazine began its existence at the end of 1979 and was published regularly until 1992. In 2003-2005, an attempt was made to renew its publication, but only 13 issues were published. However, the magazine has long since become a legend, both for the fans who bought it then, who keep its issues to this day, and for the younger generations who discover it through their parents or in antiquarian bookstores. This is exactly how the film about “DRAGON” begins – Leonid Yovchev searches for the first issue of the magazine, published 38 years ago. And although the issue was published in a circulation of 150 thousand, it is, to put it mildly, a “rare find”.
The authors of the film offer us a very interesting, playful perspective on the history of the magazine, realized through interviews and stories of the artists, authors, publishers, fans and comic book characters of “Daga”. Among them you will see Hristo Kotsev, who never published the magazine, because it was given to DI “Septemvri”, Venelin Valkanov, Vladimir Konovalov, Rumen Petkov, Dimitar Stoyanov-Dimo, Sotir Gelev, Evgeniy Yordanov, Petar Stanimirov and many others. In total, over 30 artists have worked over the years, who, despite the poor printing, the limitations in materials, format, pages and ideology of the time, have managed to create a legend. The huge number of topics that have been developed in the magazine over the years concern all kinds of stories and literary works. “Our charm was that we were enthusiastic, honest, dedicated to this art to some extent – pioneers!” says Rumen Petkov, and today their followers on the magazine’s FB page are over 30 thousand.
Those who were unable to attend the presentation yesterday will have the opportunity to watch the film in the program of the Odeon Cinema next week – April 10, and then (we hope) on other dates.
Photos: Milena Radeva
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