The British Council has been operating in Yugoslavia for more than 60 years. After all that time, all the activities of this politically independent organization, have finally been integrated in a single building. Following the the very act of moving into the new offices in Terazije Sq., the film entitled Moving, illustrates the British Council cultural and art programmes.
The Belgrade-seated Publikum printing company issued its 13th artistic calendar titled “Life” including over 100 photos taken by more than forty young local artists. The calendar for 2002, as well as a media campaign, promotes the project with “liberation” as main topic – liberation from clichés, trends, imposed ways of life, and mostly liberation of a “dormant creative energy”. The project is made complete by the documentary “Life Live”. The documentary depicts the process of the calendar’s creation by Artistic Group FIA.
Evaluating the responsibility of the intellectual elite for all the things that have happened to us, asking whether these intellectuals gave tacit consent to all that has taken place is the basic theme of the 30-minute television series SOFA.
The Way Out is an hour long documentary about people who decided to leave Serbia because of Milosevic’s rule as well as those who decided to stay and fight. The objective was to incite citizen action if they are unhappy and discontent about the workings of their Government.
The answers of the interviewed made during the three months’ time of bombing Yugoslavia 1999, form an appendix to the book. In it lie answers to the questions of their partaking and responsibility in the events, of dilemma concerning patriotism as collective or individual feeling, of the fears of the times when anyone drinking Coca Cola might be accused of being a traitor. Audio section of the CD ROM includes 20 audio interviews.
The idea I had in mind was to introduce people that think differently from the ones officially representing us. To show, as one of the interviewed, historian Milan St. Protic, said, “That here exists that so called “Second Serbia”, which I would call the First Serbia. First in political sense, as well as in any other sense imaginable.”
It is a documentary which shows the opinions of passers-by, together with their messages and questions to politicians whose statuettes have been displayed in shop windows in towns throughout Serbia. Now, before elections in the Republic of Serbia, is the time to test public opinion in Serbian towns on the transition phase we entered on October 5, 2000.
In the face of prohibitions and restrictions in all aspects of life, over the last ten years many people have left Belgrade, Serbia in pursuit of a different reality. “BOM DIA” is about those people who, in their quest for a more acceptable and normal life chose Portugal, an ultra-peripheral country, in the very corner of Europe.
Info Shock (serb. InfoUdar) was a civic voters’ educational program prior to the federal elections in Serbia in September 2000. The target group of the InfoShock campaign were ordinary people, and emphasis was on giving them a voice.
Coo-coo-cacaachoo is about recognizing values, surviving urban places, clubs, theaters, protests against bans of the free press and closing down work of independent media. It is about people for whom nonacceptance the basis of any moral concept.
Just like in every love affair, there is a struggle against the sense of dependence, loss of confidence, identity or freedom, so in every-day life we are faced with the same emotions.
From the road to impossible shows theatrical performances in a psychiatric hospital in Belgrade. This is a natural form of resistance that can lead to better communication. It is yet another proof that living beings show signs of life.
Between 1991 and 1994, 15 000 people moved from Belgrade to London. Among them are my friends who have exchanged Belgrade’s heart for an non-existant London fogg, Capitol radio and, maybe, refuggee status. Is this really a matter of personal choice: pack your things and leave?!
In these tumultuous times, when things last shorter and shorter, music remains as the last sign of recognition. Originally intended as a music choice by celebrities big and small, those who made something out of their lives, thus claiming the right to be the first, this show continues through dialogues with the guests, which, represent an exchange of energy, recognition, acceptance and respect for differences. She hosted around 800 guests so far. Their thoughts do not bring order into the chaos, but confirm the fact that there are people in Belgrade who want it to be different.
Working on animal skin, painter Milenko Mihajlovic expresses his feelings about the war. Unlike those who manipulate people, this painter manipulates leather in order to create art.
Video presentation of Srdjan Valjarević’s book
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