About Gheorghe Lucian

Filmmaker Phelim McAleer met Gheorghe Lucian in the village of Rosia Montana, Romania, during the initial stages of shooting the documentary that became Mine Your Own Business. During McAleer’s stay in Rosia, Gheorghe went from an interview subject to a travel partner invited by McAleer to see how enviro-activists were working to stop mining projects in Africa and South America. It was the first time Gheorghe had left his home in the Transylvania mountains.

Somewhere along the journey, Gheorghe Lucian ceased being a subject under McAleer’s lens, and became an activist himself – a voice against the oppositionists who seek to tell people how to live, only to perpetuate their poverty.

Back in Romania, Gheorghe, 26, rejoined his family – his mother, father, two sisters and three brothers – in their village home. His father works in a nearby village for a state-run copper mine, earning $110 USD per month. His sisters left for Spain, as so many Romanians do, in search of work. Gheorghe himself is unemployed, which is no different than the 70% of working-age residents of Rosia village who have no jobs. His last paycheck came as a miner on an exploration drilling team, work that lasted until the enviro-activists won a lawsuit to stop the drill project.

As a result of his experiences in the making of Mine Your Own Business, Gheorghe wants to start a blog, to show people the reality of Rosia Montana and his hopes for his family’s future.