FESTIVALS

No Sound, Dust or Fury

34th Revue of Croatian Film and Video, Split, 22-24 November 2002

34th Revue of Croatian Film and Video in Split took place in the shadow of the short film program by the master of experimental film Ivan Martinac and the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Cine Club Split. It presented a choice of last year’s non-professional film production, which announced some new trends. The number of documentary films and their creative level were a proof that documentarism in non-professional world is not just a ’local’ occurrence, but a genre present in the production of all active cinéclubs. Documentaries were methodologically more elaborate, thematically closer to present times, or even to generations of their authors. They were sometimes too serious and (socially, politically or simply humanistically) engaged, and sometimes playful, ironic or sub culturally ’worked up’. They were more rarely conceptual, and in some segments even educational. Experimental documentary, which particularly flourished in the golden years of cinéclubs and budding domestic avant-garde, featured some new authors and more flowing experimental versions, for example narrative and generic (House of Dolls by Goran Škofić), or versions with vital structural and abstract line (Zozara by Matko Burić). However, one felt a lack of intimism, which was a refreshing quality, especially in the works of female authors at some of the previous reviews.
Instead of Vanima from Varaždin and ŠAF from Čakovec, creative duel in animation overtook the animators from Zaprešić, who work on computer animation and gag-miniature, and the animators from Karlovac, inclined to older techniques, especially the drawing. Motion pictures are going through production and creative crisis. Very few authors decided to create a story, furthermore, most of those belonged to one minute film category, popularised through the Požega Cup. One minute became the dominating norm in motion picture production, accompanied by joke and wisecrack, which completely pushed out any more elaborate storytelling.

Diana Nenadić