Activities in Novi Sad (28.4. - 29.4. 2007)

In Novi Sad first we visited a high school / boarding school for Orthodox priests. We discussed the questions about filming in the school wit the rector, and we arranged to file a written application that will be sent to Serbian 'Eparchy', just because of proper contact approach. The film crew from Novi Sad is supposed to film the interviews wit the students in May.

The material that they will make could be roughly edited and presented to other groups, just to keep us all informed and to make things more transparent. Similarly when other groups will be able to provide and present their 'work material' it is desired to present it to others involved in the project ...

Later we had a meeting with representatives of partner groups form Novi Sad – KUDa Org, Playground Production and Terra Film. Here are some conclusions of more importance:

Drago Pintarič and Želimir Žilnik presented the construction of the project and current state of the project regarding the partners, financial budget and logistic options. Especially the emphasis was on the expectations and obligations towards the financiers and other groups, that we are expected to fulfill. Some of these special conditions are connected with the youth exchange part of the project:

• Participants must be between 15 and 25 years of age, with some grounded exceptions to 30 years of age. (But for the case of Ljubljana, Mostar and Novi Sad, these rules are more loose, because of the different conditions of the last year's application – when application to the National Agency was made for Ljubljana, Mostar and Novi Sad)

• The groups should follow these limitations as much as possible. Especially this applies for the part of the exchange that will happen in Istanbul. From each group there will travel 8 participants and 1 or 2 youth leaders / mentors. For other exchanges will be easier, because of more convenient and flexible logistic and financial conditions.

• We expect to have also adequate budget for exchange in Berlin, with wich we could cover expenses for older participants from Novi Sad and others that would like to join the theoretical part / symposium that will be held there.

• For now our main financiers are: European Cultural Foundation, EU – Program Youth and some local co-financiers.

• All partners should exert themselves to raise the budget. With gained financial support each partner should manage to lead their part of the project themselves. Nevertheless, our monetary operations should be transparent, also because in case of ‘financial holes’ for realization of some ‘sub’-projects, the money to cover the expenses could be re-directed from other resources.

On the way from Novi Sad to Mostar we stopped in Srebrenica, a city where massive killing of the Islamic community happened in the recent Balkan war. We were guests in the house of Nusret Efendič and his family, who experienced a big loss during the war and returned to their homes just two years ago. We also visited a graveyard and memorial monument of the ‘Srebrenica massacre’ and shot some material that we will publish on the website.

Activities in Mostar (30.4. – 2.5. 2007)

 While our stay in Mostar we also visited a Sufi Tekija in Blagaj and Chatolic church and religious centre in Medjugorje.

During our visit of Tekija, a history of the place was briefly presented to us and we also got some useful information. We have arranged a possibility to film the gathering and ‘dance’ of Dervishes in May, when they will perform a religious practice called Zikri. Further arrangement and filming will be realized by Sandy Puce, leader of the Mostar group. In the time of our stay (on 13.07.2007) there will be also initiation of new members to the community of Dervishes. So this is also one of the possibilities for our filming during the exchange in Mostar.

Next place we visited was Medjugorje where apparition of virgin Mary is believed to have happened. Now there’s a big religious pilgrimage centre with many Christian markings and curiosities. We got many impressions that made us think about dierent questions connected with religious practice and dogmatic ideology etc … We also filmed some material, which you will soon be able to find on the website.

Rapport - Meeting In Mostar (1.st of May 2007)

• Accommodation: Most of the participants will be accommodated in ‘Egyptian village’, part of the crew will stay nearby in Pavarotti centre. In the centre will also be our ‘headquarters’ where video workshop and lectures will be held.

• Workshops, lectures, equipment: In the Pavarotti centre we will have at least two editing computers. Also there will be a possibility of LAN connection to the internet for Lap-top computers.

• Public discussion: Public discussion with the presentation of individual fragments of production will be held in centre Abraševič, where at that time Film festival will also be held. The themes for the discussion will be prepared by hosting organization, and will be presented on the internet prior the event

• Financing: Partner organization from Mostar will try to find financially favorable (low-price) services for our accommodation, food and other services connected with the part of the exchange in Mostar. The open question is the question of co-financing the 30% of travel expenses on other exchanges for Mostar group. We agreed to both try, together or each for themselves, to gain the needed financial means or adequate co-financier for this expense.

• Participants of the exchange:  For the group from Mostar would be adequate, to form themselves as a combination of participants, that have the experience with video and participants that are the students of Inter-cultural gymnasium (youth of different nationalities), which would learn how to work with video, and could then use this tool to film the situations with their peers, friends, parents etc … This way we could ‘easily’ obtain the adequate material for making the smaller productions.

• Themes for filming and video research: ‘Bigger’ themes, that we could connect with similar researches in other countries/regions are the themes connected with ‘holy places’ and pilgrims, themes connected with confessionaly mixed marriages, some themes connected with education and questions of ‘architectural and monumental representation and manifestation of religious ideology – (building of monumental cross, churches, mosques and other sacral objects. There are many possible layers of theoretical approaches towards these themes, that still have to be more defined.
  

  Other ‘smaller’ themes for video research with less ambitious expectations (what we have to emphasise in Mostar, because we have to be rather ‘subtile’ and ‘non-conflict’) are limited to work of young participants of the project who still meet film as a media. One of the porposed themes could also be a film about the statue of Bruce Lee. A story of the monument that represents the values of the youth of all ‘sides’ of Mostar and was raised only months ago, but it already came to his inglorious end by devastation in two or three weeks. Similar stories we can find in the story of graffiti on Mostar bridge and maybe in football match between the two teams Zrinski and Velež, the situations that tend to bring out the ‘unspoken’ social conflicts into words and actions …

A personal remark: