AFTEr SCHOOL FILM CLUB
AFTER SCHOOL FILM CLUB
Created in cooperation with The Yugoslav Film Archive and Filmkultura, The Afterschool Film Club is a workshop free of charge for high school students - from Belgrade’s various schools - realized through gatherings around film. In conversations about the history of (not only) films, genres and approaches we give and receive knowledge, while the development of the participants’ ideas we touch upon their predominant goals and ideas, thus we try to answer them. The After School film club is an attempt at making - or at least initiating the making - of a space for the young people to come back to, where they ask questions, look for contacts, literature, advice or helb. A space that develops organically, education and is open to everyone.
The workshop is led by the three mentors - Radiša Cvetković, Jovan Marković and Maša Seničić, and during the steady and all-consuming work it became clear that the process goes in both wars, full of deep insights for both sides. The Yugoslav Film Archive represents the natural starting point for these kinds of exchange, as it has also been for the previous generations. Young people brought together by this workshop wish to understand film, as much as they need it - as a space of artistic expression, but also as a space for communication. The encouraged youth is what any community and society needs: for them to analytically and dedicatedly make art, but to also write about it avoiding the few common, seductive phrases. To think about the art to begin with
A SPACE FOR KNOWLEDGE, EXCHANGE AND DIALOGUE
The workshop takes place every year during autumn, and there have been three generations in The Afterschool Film Club up to now, in the years 2021, 2022 and 2023, which all get together every Saturday between September and December. Taking into account the knowledge and aspirations of the group, the dynamics of the workshop can vary, but structure of the collective work remains somewhat linear. The participants firstly learn the most important elements of film language, approaches and techniques, after which they are acquainted with the history of the world and Yugoslav cinema.
Specific terms, such as genre and style, they research and illustrate through short exercises, filmed outside of The Yugoslav Film Archive. Workshop guests, film professionals, help them understand the creative process, talking about the filmmaking from a personal perspective: from the idea and the film funds to their own attempts and visions. In the last part of the workshop we dedicate ourselves to developing the films of high school students - experimental, documentary or fictional - while each one of them can choose their role in a group or individual process.
THE NEED FOR A FILM COMMUNITY
What we today recognize as media literacy was clear in the time of the most vital period of the Yugoslav cinema. Živojin Pavlović wrote about it, both from the perspective of an author and a professor, in his book “Film in schools”, proposing sixty years ago the widening and rethinking educational methods so they would also use film in their analytical thinking.
Back then he claimed that the youth understands and needs film - as a language of freedom, subversion, diversity of styles and worlds. There is no need to insist on the rule of moving pictures in all today’s spaces of exchange, from the temporary ones to the institutional and market ones, and this workshop is a step towards the understanding and bringing together the contemporary audiovisual strivings.
GENERATIONS
The participants ofThe Afterschool Film Club #1 were high school students: Danica Bubalo, Lenka Trajković, Luka Lazarević, Andrej Jakovljević, Matija Malešev, Mihajlo Nikolić, Milica Lazović, Miona Đenisijević, Stefana Lazarević, Sara Aleksić, Tijana Zdravković, Ana Ćupović, Ana Đošev, Mateja Mitić, Ognjen Belić, Luka Mihailović.
The guest lecturers of the Film Section were Staša Bajac, screenwriter and playwright, Ivan Ikić, film director, Ivana Vuković, actress, Stefan Đorđević, director of photography and film director, Jelena Maksimović, film editor and film director.
The participants of The Afterschool Film Club #2 were high school and high school students: Anja Miljković, Barbara Pantović, Janko Kusturica, Jovana Burza, Lena Perišić, Ljubiza Lazić, Marija Đurđević, Marko Đurović, Maša Rudović, Mateja Đorđević, Milena Bisenić, Miloš Miletić, Ognjen Piper, Olga Krstić, Seka Lopušina, Sofija Spasojević, Tereza Stefanović, Vanja Nikolić, Varvara Aleksić, Vuk Cerović.
The guest lecturers of Film Section #2 were Mina Đukić, film director, Boris Grgurović, screenwriter, Marko Milovanović, director of photography, Dragana Baćović, set designer, Jakov Munizaba, sound designer, and Mina Petrović, film editor.
The films that the participants worked on were shown as part of a special selection at Filmkultura’s event that has been held for 10 years – The Shortest Day. The screening took place in an independent cultural space, Kvaka 22, where this group of high school students presented their work for almost 2 hours to a packed room of interested people.
