Flaherty NYC Presents:
The Permanent Dissident: Želimir Žilnik 
Želimir Žilnik will be in attendance for a post-screening discussion.

Tuesday, October 29, 7:00pm Flaherty NYC@ Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Ave. (@2nd St.) Programmed by Sherry Millner & Ernie Larsen
This program focuses on the working methods of Yugoslavian Black Wave pioneer Želimir Žilnik, from his early films, including BLACK FILM (1971) which focuses on homelessness and which sent him into exile in Germany, and INVENTORY (1975), one of the first films to note the plight of the migrant worker, through TITO AMONG THE SERBS FOR THE SECOND TIME (1994) and his 2010 feature film, THE OLD SCHOOL OF CAPITALISM.
FILMS:

BLACK FILM (1971, 14 min, 35mm)
One night, Žilnik picks up a group of homeless men from the streets of Novi Sad and takes them home. While they enjoy themselves in his home, the filmmaker tries to “solve the problem of the homeless” carrying along a film camera as a witness. He speaks to social workers, ordinary people. He even addresses policemen. They all close their eyes to the “problem”.

INVENTORY (1975, 9 min, 16mm)
Tenants of one old building in the center of Münich are featured in this film: most of them are foreigners who work in Germany as “guest workers” (Yugoslavs, Italians, Turks, Greeks etc.). In their mother tongue, each of them tells who he or she is, and briefly talks about their major worries, new hopes and plans for the future.

TITO AMONG THE SERBS FOR THE SECOND TIME  (1994, 43 min)
Belgrade 1994, a man in Marshal Tito’s original uniform appears in different parts of the city. Instantly, groups of people flock around him and get involved in passionate discussions. Almost all of them accept to play the game, complain about the old times in Yugoslavia and blame Tito for everything.

THE OLD SCHOOL OF CAPITALISM  (2010, 20-min excerpt)
The Old School of Capitalism is rooted in the first wave of workers revolts to hit Serbia since the advent of capitalism. Desperate workers bulldoze through factory gates and are devastated to discover the site looted by the bosses. Eccentrically escalating confrontations, including a melee with workers in football shoulder-pads and helmets and boss and his security force in bulletproof vests, prove fruitless. Committed young anarchists offer solidarity, take the bosses hostage. A Russian tycoon, a Wall Street trader and US VP Biden’s visit to Belgrade unexpectedly complicate events that lead toward a final shock. Along the way, the film produces an increasingly complex and yet unfailingly lively account of present-day, in fact, up-to-the-minute struggles under the misery-inducing effects of both local and global capital.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Želimir Žilnik has written and directed numerous feature and documentary films which have reaped many awards at domestic and international film festivals. Žilnik is renowned as an initiator of the “docudrama” genre. From the very beginning his films have focused on contemporary issues, featuring social, political and economic assessments of everyday life, starting with: A Newsreel on Village Youth in Winter (1967), Little Pioneers (1968), The Unemployed(1968). June Turmoil, Black Film (1971) and Uprising in Jazak (1973).
The student demonstrations of 1968 and the turmoil that followed the occupation of Czechoslovakia are at the centre of Žilnik’s first feature film Early Works (1969) which was awarded the “Golden Bear” at the Berlin Film Festival.  After facing problems with censorship in Yugoslavia, Žilnik spent the mid-seventies in Germany, where he made seven documentaries and one feature film, Paradise (1976). These films were amongst the first ever to concern themselves with the foreign workforce in Germany.  Following his return to Yugoslavia at the end of the seventies, he directed a substantial series of television films and docudramas for TV Belgrade and TV Novi Sad.  Turning to independent production in the nineties, he went on to make a series of films centring around the cataclysmic events befalling the Balkans (Tito among the Serbs for the Second Time (1994), Marble Ass (1995), Throwing off the Yolks of Bondage (1996), Wanderlust (1998) and other). In 2005 Marble Ass won the prestigious “Teddy Award” at the Berlinale.
The breakdown of the system of values in post-transitional Central and Eastern European countries and the problems facing refugees and immigrants within an extended Europe became the focus of Žilnik’s most recent films Fortress Europe(2000; “Victor Award” for Best Film of the Year, Ljubljana), Kenedi Goes Back Home (2003), Kenedi, Lost and Found (2005), europe-next-door (2005), Soap in Danube Opera (2006), Kenedi is Getting Married (2007). His many films have been screened at over 250 international festivals.
About the Flaherty
The Flaherty is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the proposition that independent media can illuminate the human spirit. Its mission is to foster exploration, dialogue, and introspection about the art and craft of all forms of the moving image. It was established to present the annual Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, named after the maker of such seminal documentaries as Nanook of the North, Man of Aran, and Louisiana Story. The Seminar remains the central and defining activity of The Flaherty. Other activities include: Flaherty NYC, a seasonal screening series showcasing innovative nonfiction media; Flaherty on the Road, presenting films from the Seminar at venues across the country; and the preservation and distribution of Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North and Louisiana Story, as well as audio recordings from Seminar discussions dating back to 1958.

For more information, visit www.flahertyseminar.org.

http://flahertyseminar.org/the-permanent-dissident-zelimir-zilnik/