Centers

TWENTY-SECOND INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ETHNOLOGICAL FILM IN BELGRADE
Man, Skill, Heritage
The mission continues. With camera as an intermediary, our concerned eye is searching for identity and means to defend it in this era in which defacement has reached horrifying proportions. We know about wounds, we are searching for ointment. We know about abysses, we are becoming a bridge. Creators, researchers and image maestros from about twenty countries gathered and by doing so they already significantly shifted the borders, both visible and invisible. Because the world in which such people exist is not without hope

For this years’, twenty second, edition of the Festival, as many as 115 films applied, which is a record. The selection committee selected 13 foreign and four local films in the official program, as many for the information program, as well as eight films in student competition. Based on their subject matters, social and political films were dominant, then psychological and physical anthropology, social involvement of specific groups and fitting into normal life. Questions of human life and its duration, as well as stories contemplating life experiences, were also represented. Connection with modern times, both positive and negative, was the framework for critical review of the world in which we live and the life clock which is ticking.
In addition to mandatory competitive program, the Festival also had an interesting special program: selection of the most important Chinese ethno-documentary films from the 1990’s.

CONTRIBUTION TO THE FILM TO INTANGIBLE HERITAGE

Realizing the significance of film in preservation of intangible heritage, a round table was organized on documenting crafts in Southeast Europe. It was organized by the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade, in cooperation with the Sofia Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe and UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe from Venice. Experiences and opinions were voiced by experts in the field of visual anthropology and intangible heritage of Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Italy, Belgium and China.
The conclusion of the roundtable was that the film can significantly contribute to the protection of intangible cultural heritage by documenting the live cultural heritage, such as customs, crafts, traditions... In addition to this, and given the nature and properties of the film medium, the film can interpret the heritage in many different ways. It is essential that a significant number of ethnologists and anthropologists get involved in these projects, as well as other experts, because the preservation of intangible heritage is fundamentally an interdisciplinary endeavor. The film medium certainly has its place in society and it should be brought closer to the local community, and members of that local community should be motivated to record their reality themselves.

THE AWARD IS THAT YOU ARE HERE

Film Jo Joko, Good Food (Japan, 2012, directed by Daisuke Bundo) was proclaimed the best in the presentation of intangible cultural heritage. It shows in detail the preparation of food as a key part of everyday life, which usually goes unnoticed in ethnographic film.
The best local film was Kosma (Serbia, 2013, director Sonja Blagojević), a heart-stirring presentation of social and anthropological trauma in Kosovo, as the area of ​​the long conflict.
The best foreign work was Voices fromtundra – The Last Jukagiri (The Netherlands, 2013, directed by Edwin Tromelen and PaulEnkelar), a touching testimony of a humanistic approach within a scientific research.
Grand Prix ”Dragoslav Antonijevic”, Best Film of the Festival, went to The Stories about Amsterdam, the USA (Belgium, 2012, directed by Rob Rumba and Rogier Van Eck), a powerfulillumination of transcultural context in modern society.
(www.etnofilm.org)

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People, Treasuries, Professions
The focus of this year's festival were the people as a living treasure, represented in the projection of the popular television show ”Squaring the Circle”. For the second consecutive year, open call ”ID3min– Recording of Cultural Heritage with a Mobile Phone” was organized – this year with the topic:”People with Unusual Professions”. Students of ethnology and anthropology had the opportunity to learn something new at the School of Visual Anthropology.

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Jury
Jury of the twenty second International Festival of Ethnographic Film had the following members: ethnologist Tamara Nikolić Đeric (Croatia), film critic Božidar Zečević (Serbia), ethnologist and filmmaker Livo Niglas (Estonia).