DOCUMENTARY

Travelling Notes

Author of the text is a renowned director of documentary films. He describes his first documentaristic experiences, explaining why a large portion of his opus is linked to Dalmatian Zagora. TV documentary Village Teachers (1969) was first planned as a half hour film, but eventually turned into an hour and a half long documentary. It was an enlightening experience for Tadić. For example, a teacher from Ramljani, after her unsuccessful first lecture in front of the crew, acted very tense during the actual shooting and could not open up. It was quite obvious that she would have been much more spontaneous without any preparations. Furthermore, after having filmed an intimate confession of the teacher, the crew left her sitting alone while they all gathered around the camera to see the footage. Obviously, a documentarist has to be considerate with the people he films because they have agreed to reveal their lives to his crew. Tadić goes on to explain how he dealt with the problems of film authorship on television and points to different viewer reactions to films and TV shows about their hometown. Some of the Travelling Notes were shot in Zagreb because one does not have to travel in order to write a travelling notes. Sometimes one stops, catches something with his camera, and keeps on going. Till the end. Tadić concludes with his experiences acquired during the filming and screening of his films Last Mail — Muć, Others and Plaids.

Zoran Tadić