Series Site
September 28–29, 2023
“Želimir Žilnik brings us back to the long tradition of more explicitly committed documentaries, and offers us a counterpoint to the more widespread canon.” —José Manuel Costa
“Žilnik is a key figure of cinematic resistance.” —Boris Nelepo
“This program presents a selection of works (many of them rarely seen) by the celebrated Yugoslav filmmaker Želimir Žilnik. Since the 1960s, Žilnik has been at the forefront of politically engaged cinema in Europe, developing a distinct style of docu-fiction grounded in the camera’s catalytic immersion into the real world. In Žilnik’s films (he has made more than sixty shorts and features), the under- and unrepresented subjects—the homeless; the unemployed; immigrants; refugees; the politically, racially, and sexually oppressed; or marginalized individuals and groups—take center stage, speak, and act. This is the cinema of the people and cinema-as-praxis. Filmmakers have thus far reproduced the world; the point, however, is to produce it!”
—Pavle Levi