31st International Festival of Ethnological Film

 

     We have the pleasure to annouce that the 31st International Festival of Ethnological Film will take place from October 3 to October 6 2022, with screenings at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade and the Yugoslav Film Archive. The audience will be able to enjoy 65 documentaries of different lenghts, divided into several categories, with a wide array of topics and approaches, showcasing life on all continents. As always, entrance to all screenings is free of charge.


 

   The Main competition encompasses 37 films competing for the Grand Prix “Dragoslav Antonijević”, as well as the awards for Best National and Best International Film. New as of this year are the awards “Dobrivoje Pantelić” – for the best film about indigenous culture in independent production, as well as the Best Television Film Award. With the help of several embassies and cultural centers, the Festival is able to host visiting authors of competing films who will attend the Festival and participate in the Q&A sessions – Marco Juertas (dir. Navras), Stefania Muresu (dir. Princesa), Ico Costa (dir. Timkat), Marjan Khosravi(dir. Dream of a Horse), Vladimir Bocev(dir. There's neither Horn nor Hoof Left), Aleksej Gotthardi Pavlovsky (prod. Once Upon an All Saints' Day).

 

Still from the film Navras

   

 

    

                                                              Still from the film Half Elf

    The Student competition is comprised of 8 films whose authors are taking part in student programs, workshops and film schools throughout the world: from Tromsø to Wellington, from Istanbul to Los Angeles. They will be competing for the Best Student Film Award.

 

   

 

  Within the non-competitive Panorama program, 

14 films indirectly engaging with ethnological and

anthropological issues will be screened.

Still from the film Signs of Life

   


    Special programs are represented by anthropologists who have not only decades of research experience behind them, but who have also created impressive films to crown this effort. Sandrine Loncke, author of What if Babel was just a Myth? (awarded the Grand Prix at the 29th IFEF) will show her first film, Dance With the Wodaabe, and talk about her decision to pick up the camera whilst researching the music and dances of the Sahel. Peter Ian Crawford, theorist and practicioner of visual anthropology, chairman of NAFA’s annual film selection committee,will hold a master class on anthropological filmmaking on the basis of his engagement in the Reef Islands Ethnographic Film project. To accompany this master class, three films from the project will be screened: Alfred Melotu. The Funeral of a Paramount Chief, Pilenipaualala. Dried giant clams in the Reef Islands,Passage – Camera as cultural critique/Creative Archives #1.

 

                

                                                                                           Sandrine Loncke                                                               Peter Ian Crawford   


 

Photo Credit Jacky Azoulay

     Ultimately, one special program will posthumously honor film theorist and educator Colin Young, who died in November 2021. His founding of the school of ethnographic film at UCLA in the second half of the 1960s is closelytied with the work of filmmakers now seen as classics of the genre: Judith and David McDougall, Timothy Asch, Paul Hockings, Jorge Preloran… Due to the courtesy of Documentary Educational Resources, founded by John Marshall and Timothy Asch, Belgrade audience will have the privilege of seeing for the first time two ethnographic classics:The Village (dir. Mark McCarty,Paul Hockings) and The Ax Fight (dir. Timothy AschNapoleon Chagnon).

                                             


    The Festival is realized by the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade with funds from the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, co-financed by funds from the Secretariat for Culture, City of Belgrade. The Yugoslav Film Archive is the Festival’s partner.