The Academic Film Center (AFC) in Belgrade, Serbia, was founded in 1958, in what was then socialist Yugoslavia, under the name of Academic Cineclub (Akademski kino klub). In 1982, the AFC founded the Alternative Film Archive to preserve its film and video heritage, which now includes over 800 films and videos produced by the AFC and over 2,000 films produced outside of the AFC. That same year, the AFC started the Alternative Film/Video Festival, today one of the oldest festivals in the Balkans dedicated exclusively to experimental and alternative filmmaking. In three segments, the program presents an overview of more than 60 years of the AFC's production and archival initiative.
The Film selection was curated by:
Milan Milosavljevic is a curator, filmmaker and Head of Department at Academic Film Center, Students’ City Cultural Center in Belgrade. He is the main organizer of the Alternative Film Video Festival and of Balkanima, the European festival of animated film. He is also the co-founder of the independent film center Vorky Team, named in memory of the pioneering film artist Slavko Vorkapich.
This screening is organized in cooperation with the Open Resource Center (ORC) of the University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe.
☞ The runtime of the entire program is 71 minutes.
Hands of Purple Distances
A desperate young woman, possibly on the run, is surrounded by a barren landscape of forests and fields. On her way to an unrecognizable resolution, the film warps into a circular series of pulsating images that touch on the horrific and the metaphysical.
Straight Line (Stevens Duke)
The first part of Gotovac’s structuralist trilogy, dedicated to Duke Ellington and George Stevens, places a camera at the front of a moving streetcar. It captures tracks, streets, and pedestrians, immersing viewers in an urban journey that transports them fifty years into the past.
The Journey
A woman enters an elevator - a seemingly everyday situation unfolds into an intense exploration of movement, space and perception.
The Raven
Surreal, plotless, poetical film, consisting of blurred, black and white stills of ravens which form a moving picture at approximately 6 fps.
Expiration
The beauty that no one but me wants to see in this space I crave for someone as if you were me, and then I open my jacket and let the beauty fly away and escape to my purse and bag.
Scream
Film consists of shots of Belgrade Zoo, animals inside it, and the medieval fortress it was built within. Features a bizarre soundtrack of experimental music. It also features cinematography by Ratko Vladic, famous Serbian cinematographer.
Organon or They Have Asked of Me
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Last Tango in Paris
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Look What You've Made Me Do
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Death of Metalosaurus
An electricity pylon lying on the ground in New Belgrade becomes a fascinating, surreal motif in this experimental short film. The filmmaker captures the apparent remains of a giant dinosaur, which come to life in the distorted forms of the pylon. Fast close-ups and different perspectives create a poetic exploration of perception and transience.