Editor's Note

Constantly taking a step forward, the Festival has been directing its programmes towards new groups of filmmakers and expanding the area where ethnographic, ethnological and anthropological body of topics and subjects defined by the medium of film occur, taking into account the role of new technologies and tools in shaping a strictly documentary, explorative, and, finally, the author's approach. Therefore, this year's programmes are focused on the man in time and time in the man and this is easily observed in a wide range of cultural phenomena covered by the films to be presented. These are namely personally, socially, culturally and civilizationally determined reflections and messages associated with apparent or hidden relationships between participants in the films, with filmmakers as cultural observers and interpreters, and, finally, with our broader environment which evaluates this in its own way. The wide array of films competing for awards thus ranges from works dealing with everyday life, the conflict between the modern and the traditional, to those addressing cultural policies and policies in culture. On the other hand, various modern readings of myths, mythologies and the 'otherworldly', as well as the increasingly topical issues related to the status of persons with disabilities can also be seen...read more

Marko Stojanović
Executive Director of the Festival

A Look Askew: impressions of a Selection Committee member

The role of the educational, professional and experiential vocation to which I belong as a producer and a filmmaker who is primarily focused on documentary and, particularly, non-professional film – additionally stressed by the fact that the Selection Committee of the International Festival of Ethnological Film have so far been composed of and oriented to film professionals (namely, this year, Arsa Jovanović and me) rather than to ethnologists or anthropologists – certainly shows (particularly having in mind the agreement among all of the three Committee members), once again, that all spheres of everyday life in modern civilization have become a legitimate theme and subject for this specific subcategory of documentary film – ethnological film. Furthermore, the Festival has passed a long way from the reconstructions of the so-called traditional, folk life and authors' tendency to depict the everyday life and the ritualization of communities which ceased to exist in a representative form and in essence – typical of its early days, to the current, prevailingly anthropological and, consequently, more wide-ranging discourse oriented towards the living world around us...read more

Vladimir Anđelković
producer, President of the Centre for Non-Professional Filmmaking of Serbia

An Ethnologist in the World of Moving Pictures

Film is a wonderful magic that captures one and makes it possible to overcome all the difficulties encountered by a museum ethnologist as a film author. Being always at the source of the still living traditional topics, their transformations and the creation of new phenomena, such an author has an opportunity to compensate for the lack of high-quality production relying on an original idea and a well-defined and essentially accurately conceptualized problem, phenomenon or process. Cinematic expression involves a special type of dramaturgy, poetics, aesthetics and the attitude to reality. At the same time, the facts and the substance of a cultural phenomenon must be preserved and it is to be conveyed to observers as veritably and objectively, without losing any of its authenticity. This is a very complex process. Even professional movie directors agree that ethnological film is the most difficult and the most demanding genre of documentary film...read more

Danica Đokić
Museum Counsellor at the National Museum in Požarevac

World War I – Filmmaking

From the end of 1916 and the beginning of 1917, our cameramen were not in a position to record the heroic deeds of our people and our Army using camera lenses, due to a harsh situation that befell Serbia. At that time, newly formed Cinematographic Department of the Serbian Army in Thessaloniki started working; it was managed by Dragiša Stojadinović later Mihailo Mihailović, also known as Mika Afrika. Thanks to their dedicated work and enthusiasm, numerous shots about work of the Supreme Headquarters and breakout of the Salonika front were preserved, as well as the major materials such as The fire of Thessaloniki and The court trial of Dragutin Dimitrijević Apis and his comrades, both originating from 1917. Many of these 'Thessaloniki shots' were included in numerous anthologies about the Great War. At the same time, many well-know world film studios such as Pathé, Gaumont, Savoia film, Topical-Budget and so froth, informed the world about the heroic fight of one small country against the immensely stronger enslavers via their brave cameramen (as long as it was possible)...read more

Aleksandar Saša Erdeljanović
Director of the Archive of Jugoslovenska Kinoteka

Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade and Yugoslav Film Archive, October 15-21, 2014

Round Table: The Role and Importance of Film as a Medium in the Preservation of Cultural Heritage: from a record to an author’s attitude

The ethnographic, ethnological or, as it has been lately defined, anthropological approach in the films presented within all programmes of the International Festival of Ethnological Film, have revealed that the range of topics and issues, as well as methodologies and models used in creating a film experience should inevitably be contextualized in the wide-ranging processes that contribute to documenting and safeguarding of all sorts of cultural testimonies and particularly to the preservation and sustainability of the living cultural heritage. Viewed in such a discourse, the film medium as a communication channel documents cultural heritage in its diverse forms, but it also incorporates other levels of messages about materialized and intangible cultural heritage as an agent of integration within communities, a marking feature of the identity of its members – both those who belong to the community whose existence it records and analyzes, and the ‘external’ participants, interpreters, or simply observers of different cultures.

Student Round Table: The Development of Independent Student Production of Anthropological Film

The Round Table seeks to bring together all those interested in a discussion about the (im)possibility of a student production of anthropological film. Participants will present the working conditions, highlight the need for high-quality filming equipment and discuss problems that students encounter while doing their research within the scope of visual anthropology. The Round Table will also include a presentation of the Balkan platform Balkanthro Network, whose main objective is to bring together all of the students from the former Yugoslavia involved in visual anthropology.