Rethinking Yugoslav Culture III: Formal Concerns and Documentary Claims in (Post-)Yugoslav Film

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel will examine stylistic developments in (Post-)Yugoslav cinema(s), specifically patterns of continuity and change in Yugoslav cinematography, documentary style, and mise-en-scène construction. The presentations will focus on camerawork, visual strategies, and the representation of space, relating these elements to historical developments in (Post-)Yugoslav culture and society. Concerning the theme of the 2024 ASEEES conference, this panel conceives liberation on the formal and thematic levels of (Post-)Yugoslav film. In their presentations, the panel members will consider elements of style in relation to specific films and the historical understanding they indicate. Filip Šestan will consider the stylistic and ideological implications of camera movement in Želimir Žilnik’s films. Zdenko Mandušić will examine the simulation of video recording in a selection of (Post-)Yugoslav films and how the staging of image production suggests specific historical understandings of fact and fiction in cinema. Pavle Levi will consider how a pair of Yugoslav films from different decades organize formal audiovisual elements to delineate the relationship between characters and space. Aida Vidan will examine the reenactment and fictionalization of real-world events in recent Croatian films anchored in a specific sense of space—the Dalmatian coast. These presentations collectively examine developments in film style across time, from the 1970s to 2000s, and how stylistic developments impact the construction of historical understanding and political meaning. This panel hopes to contribute to the field of New Yugoslav Studies.

Sub Unit

• Cinema, Television, Electronic Media

Chair

• Nace Zavrl, Harvard U

Papers

• Flight of the Camera: Želimir Žilnik’s Cinema between Montage and Mise-en-Scene - Filip Sestan, UC Berkeley

• What the Camera Knew: Late and Post-Yugoslav Docufictions - Zdenko Mandusic, U of Toronto (Canada)

• Factuality and Fictionality in Current Croatian Feature Film - Aida Vidan, Tufts U

Discussant

• Antje Postema, UC Berkeley