How can we grasp urgency in film? Even from one of his earliest films, the director Želimir Žilnik has pushed documentary film to the limits, intervening, making his role as director transparent, beginning to stagemanage. He questions whether it is possible for documentary film, and film in general, to have an impact. This quest for truthfulness is a leitmotiv running through his entire cine-matic oeuvre. Žilnik's language of urgency in film serves his protagonists, who reflect society and stand at the centre of historic revolutionary processes.
Together with Želimir Žilnik, we will use this one-day masterclass to investigate a position, which stands between documentary and feature films to make political cinema an independent plan for life.
Želimir Žilnik (SRB) Born in 1942 in a German concentration camp in Serbia, studied law, filmmaker since 1967, his first feature film EARLY WORKS won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 1969. In the 70s he worked in the orbit of the Filmverlag der Autoren in Munich, in the 80s he developed docudrama on Serbian TV, in the 90s he returned to independent film making.
→ zilnikzelimir.net
Moderation
Jenny Billeter (CH/ USA) Film scholar. Programmer for ‹Fokus› at the Solothurn Flm Festival and programme manager for documentary film at Kino Xenix, Zürich. Prior to this, years working with the Locarno Festival and Visions du Réel in Nyon.
