Yugoslav Documentary and Short Film Festival, 1954 – 2004. From Yugoslav Socialism to Serbian Nationalism

Event details

My doctoral research analysed the Yugoslav Documentary and Short Film Festival’s programmes, from its founding in 1954 to the official end of its Yugoslav era in 2004, when it opened to foreign films and changed its name to the Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival.

The project examined how the festival participated in the process of constructing of a collective (national) identity in two authoritarian states created immediately before, that is, during its long existence. Both were born out of war but were of completely opposite natures – socialist and multinational Yugoslavia (1943) and post-socialist Yugoslavia, on the way to becoming a national and capitalist state (1992).

Bearing in mind audiences’ tendency to understand documentary film as a credible expression of reality and not as an artistic interpretation thereof, the project examined which versions of “reality” were presented to them through the festival’s programmes in the turbulent social and political circumstances of the two periods under consideration.

This research was funded by the Foundation for heritage Sciences PATRIMA, Laboratory of Excellence LabEx PATRIMA.

It was conducted at the University Paris Saclay (Versailles-Saint-Quentien-en-Yvelines) at the Centre for Cultural History of Contemporary Societies.

This project has resulted in the book: Festival jugoslovenskog dokumentarnog i kratkometražnog filma (1954-2004). Od jugoslovenskog socijalizma do srpskog nacionalizma [Yugoslav Documentary and Short Film Festival (1954-2004). From Yugoslav Socialism to Serbian Nationalism], Beograd: Filmski centar Srbije, 2023 (Serbian, 558 pages, ISBN 978-86-7227-130-0)