Cultural politics - documents

Cultural Politics and Cinema in the Republic of Croatia

A general overview of the historical inheritance of Croatian cinema and the assessment of its present-day state and future needs.

The paper was written at the request of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, and addressed to the Council of Europe. It contains first the historical overview of film achievements of the Croatian cinema (chapter: »Short Outline of the History of Croatian Cinema, 1896-1997«, subchapters: »Croatian feature films, 1944-1997«, »Croatian short films, 1905-1997: Documentary films, Short feature films, Art subject films, Animated films, Educational films«). There is also a description of national institutions in cinema (chapter: »Basic National Institutions«, subchapters: »Croatian Cinematheque«, »The Academy of Dramatic Art«, »The Croatian Film Clubs’ Association«, and a project of »The Croatian Film Institute«).

The following chapters deal with the problem of film production, film and video distribution, film screenings, and legislation (the preparation of the new Cinema Law). Some problematic points to be dealt with in the future are elucidated: the question of the succession of an important number of films kept at the Yugoslav Cinematheque in Belgrade, the problem of space at the Croatian film archive, the need for an institute of film, the problems regarding the privatisation of the main production company in Croatia — Jadran film, the problem of the technical basis for film production, the problem of financing a sufficient amount of feature film productions, Agrement betwen Croatian Television and Cinematography and the integration of the Croatian cinema into European institutions.

Mato Kukuljica