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FROM THE HISTORY OF IDEAS: THE ABC FESTIVAL

DOCUMENTS ON THE TRANSITION OF THE CROATIAN FILM FESTIVAL

At the beginning of this decade, during the break up of the former Yugoslavia and the founding of sovereignty of the Republic of Croatia, Ivo Škrabalo promoted the idea of transforming the Pula Film Festival (which had a Yugoslav, i.e. a disguised multi-national character) into an international festival. According to this idea, the festival would have become a place to present Croatian films to the world, as well as a festival that would have brought important European and international films along with their authors to our country. The working title of this festival was »ABC: The Adria/Baltic/Croatia Festival in Pula«, and like its name suggested, it would have brought together numerous European film industries from the Baltic to the Adriatic.

The latest turn of events that has brought about the creation of two festivals (a national festival in Pula and an international festival in Motovun), just goes to prove, albeit belatedly, the legitimacy of the idea that there is a dire need for this type of two-way exchange between Croatian film and the world. For this reason, Škrabalo is for the first time publishing the documents he sent, from the period from 1990 to 1992, to the then Minister of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, in which he details how he sees the transition from the »The Festival of Yugoslav Feature Film in Pula« to »ABC: The Adria/Baltic/Croatia Festival in Pula«.

Ivo Škrabalo