22 COUNTRIES / 84 FILMS / 4 DAYS OF HIGH SCHOOL FILM MADNESS

Karlovac again this year becomes the center of high school film: the 16th Youth Film Festival and the 4th Four River Film Festival will be held in our town from 7th to 10th September 2011. The City Theater “Zorin dom”, the Old Town of Dubovac and the Youth Library will “turn yellow” with over 150 high school students from all corners of Croatia and the world, while last year’s bar of 4 thousand visitors has been raised high, which is a great challenge but an achievable one.

Charlie Chaplin, one of this year's trademarks of YFF and FRFF

The Youth Film Festival is the national revue of high school film and as such is the central spot for Croatian high school filmmaking, organized by the Croatian Film Association, and over the last five years co-organized by the Cinema Club Karlovac, it has experienced a real renaissance. Within the YFF, its international counterpart is organized as the Four River Film Festival since 2008, a festival unique not only in the region but also in most of Europe, considering that the only condition to apply is the high school age of the authors!

Sanja Zanki, Jura Troje and Marija Ratković

Two months before this “2 in 1” event, the selection committee comprised of Boško Picula, politologist, film critic and editor of the film-oriented TV program “Kokice”, Diana Nenadić, film critic and editor of numerous publication by the Croatian Film Association, and film group leader Jura Troje, decided which films will make up this year’s YFF and FRFF programmes. At the press conference, held only a few hours after this more than responsible decision had been made, the coordinator and executive producer of YFF and FRFF, Marija Ratković, program coordinator Sanja Zanki and one of the selection committee members, Jura Troje, shared their news.

The festival team at a press conference

Sanja Zanki spoke about the diversity of films: “Year after year, it’s becoming clearer that these festivals have become an important film event. Looking back on the 42 films that applied for the YFF four years ago, compared to this year’s thrilling 286 applications, of which 96 for the YFF and 190 films for the FRFF, any further proof is unnecessary.” The films come from 22 different countries from all over the world: Slovenia, Ireland, USA, UK, Czech Republic, Germany, Hong Kong, Spain, Belgium, Hungary, Austria, Moldova, South Korea, Lithuania, Serbia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Italy, Denmark, Slovakia and Norway. “Out of the 28 hours of program received, the selection committee picked out 39 films for the YFF and 45 for the FRFF program, divided into four categories: fiction, documentary and animated, as well as freestyle or experimental,” concluded Sanja.

The festival team in Charlie Chaplin's company
going for a walk around town

Jura Troje elaborated on the very process of selection: “What matters is film itself. Film as a medium of expression and film as a group activity. Both matter a great deal as one grows up, matures and finds his or hers way in life. Good films enter the festival competition while the best ones remain in the memory of the audiences. That is precisely why events like these are inseparable from the educational process.” The film groups present with the greatest number of films are FKVK Zaprešić and our hosts themselves, the Cinema Club Karlovac, with four films each. They are followed by Studio kreativnih ideja Gunja, Blank-filmski inkubator and Centar za film i video Dubrava, each with three films in competition. All of the young authors have done their best to make a good film, and Jura expressed his support for them: “Don’t ever give up because of a lack of tech support. Technology is not everything. The foundation of any good film is its script. If you don’t have a story you believe in, if you don’t have a subject for a documentary that is interesting and well developed, don’t rush with shooting, HD will not save you. Filmmaking is an organized group process.”

The festival team in Charlie Chaplin's company
going for a walk around town

Marija Ratković spoke about the concept of this year's YFF and FRFF: „As a brand, the YFF and FRFF have a certain status. The numbers of received films, guests and authors who come to Karlovac speak loudly to that effect. That is why we decided to make this year all about the residents of Karlovac, more precisely, its high school students. Therefore, we have moved the dates of the festival to work days in order to allow the high school students to come to the festival for an organised visit to the screenings as part of their Croatian curriculum. Since this is the best of what high school film has to offer aren’t the best audience also high school students? Especially if you add to that the chance to meet and speak to other kids from Croatia and abroad!” As far as the program scheme is concerned, the festival will continue to feature programs for all ages: “Film 5+” designed for the youngest of cinephiles, “Dubovac Open Air” that includes screenings within the walls of the old fort of Dubovac under the open sky, and the program “High School Kids for High School Kids” featuring presentations of programs of interest to high school students, such as similar festivals around the world, workshops, etc. “We will continue to expand on the initiative started last year, the “Yellow Flag”, an award for the promotion of non-violence on film, which will include as many as six different workshops on the subject of violence, as well as a debate on the last day of the festival. This will form a unique educational program, not only in the area of film but also in the context of social awareness, in the fight against violence among young people,” concluded Ratković. Making Karlovac a key place for high school students in terms of filmmaking and educational initiatives is therefore inevitable.

There are 63 days till the beginning of the 16th Youth Film Festival and the 4th Four River Film Festival. The countdown has begun!

6. 7. 2011