FESTIVALS

Structures and impressions, poetics and genres

15

This year’s Revue did not bring about any revolutionary changes in the field of video and filmmaking. But then again, the goal was not to start audiovisual revolutions year after year — high standards achieved in different types of audio-visual presentation could be considered quite satisfactory in this respect. Much attention as far as experimental films is concerned went to the winner of the festival Circle by Milan Bukovac. The film consisted of incessant repetition of a sequence of a man rowing until it finally becomes unreal — the material lost its meaning and transforms into a indication of some hidden truths, that is to say, indication of extremely artificial artistic structure (or at least of the artistic intent). Once the circular structure of the Circle has closed, the viewer feels the explosion of connotations from the previous course of the film. Nevertheless, it seems that in previous films Bukovac used to upgrade his audio-visual structures with somewhat more attractive visual protocoles. Several experimentalists from Split showed poetics similar to Bukovac’s. In her intimistic work Uterus Marija Prusina combined associative structure and ambient beauty in an interesting manner, more directly than Bukovac, suggesting hidden meanings with richness of forms of film recording and motives. Close to this work, by their emotionality, approach to tempo and structure, were compilation presentation Ambienta by Jelena Nazor, and intimate-voyeur film For 2 by Ana Hušman. On the male side of this experimentalist spectre stood refined Gruić’s documentary film A Tie leaving a fine impression of talking about the unspeakable with its accentuated form combined with potentially contemplative context. Move me/nt, by the same author, was a subtle but a bit less impressive work, a classic self-thematizing experimental creation. Another work of this school was experimental (animated) film Nightvision by Samobor author Fran Sokolić, evoking painting; Malevich and suprematicism. Rhythm by Darko and Marko Bejić, Goran Petreković and Mišel Rašić connected a simple idea, a simple procedure, and a simple context in an attractive structure of an interesting game with moving pictures. Among such films also belonged F 20.0 (Mladen Burić), Marta (Dario Juričan) and Lifeline (Jelena Bračun). Trick or treat day by Dario Juričan was an impressively documentaristic creation, film about a visit of Halloween madness to old and ill citizens, also revealing experimental preoccupation with hidden meanings. Such (experimental) approach to documentary film also shared the charming The Opening of a Festival in the Big Town on September 22, 2003 by Željko Radivoj, while Welcome to Split (Jere Grujić and Zoran Erceg) and Grand Hotel ’Goli otok’ (Morana Komljenović) fell in the gap between experimentalism and sensationalist documentarism. Cheerleading symphony Total damage by Ivica Čotić, was a true filmic equivalent to rituals and force of cheerleading, and it was a shame that subtle and violent structure was broken in two halves.
The violence of this film corresponded to Pig-slaughter Day (Prašćina) by Elvis Lenić, whose basic motif was the spectacle of pig slaughter. It is a shame that this brutal ethnography was not visually balanced in interiors and exteriors. Species preservation by Tomislav Vujić belonged to similar genre. It was a one-minute film with very functionally performed compression of time. Sea illness (Mario Papić) was an interesting documentary video-travelogue in which tourism was featured through the view of a ’marginal’ experience of a group of young people who parodied audio-visual genres in the mode of funniest home video. An even more successful creation was Water by Dina Zjače, a conventional documentary film of great ’exploratory’ value, unquestionable coherence and subtlety in lining up shocking details of protagonist’s life. Among the works of the so-called conventional, classic documentarism stood out Great family by Marija Ratković, Elixir by Marina Zlatarić, Hollowing by Slavica Šafar and Dražen Pleško and 12/24/12/48 by Ana Kutleša. Animated form also offered several interesting creations. Girl with matches (Jadranko Lopatić) amusingly varied subtle visual stylisation on the border between painting and drawing current in animated film. This apparently simple film presented one of the peaks of the Revue. Other prominent animated titles were Shade and peace by Julijana Kosir, Nikola Dubović and Anđelko Krajinović, although it seemed to be much more effective and rhythmical in small format than on the silver screen. Narrative film My invisible enemy (Marko Majerski), was an apparently simple but suggestive film about a boy whose invisible enemy/friend wants to take away his toys. Well-received Bariša by Tomislav Krištofić was a charming one shot narrative film simulated documentaristic talk between a boy and a girl whom the boy is trying to persuade to have intercourse with him.

Nikica Gilić