Academic Film Center – The Situation

Academic Film Center has a rich tradition in developing collective work and critical approach to film and video production. It has been a challenge to build on that foundation a new approach to the production and presentation, collaboration and exchange, adjusted to the new circumstances, and we succeeded, in spite of all obstacles, in past four years more than expected.

In the very beginning of their work together in AFC, Aleksandra Sekulic, invited to work in March 2005 due to her previous projects and activities in Low Fi Video movement and Kosmoplovci group and free lance programming cultural centers, and Bosko Prostran, already a member of AFC and its cooperative for several years, whose work in the field of experimental film and video already put him among the most promising members, managed to give a new uplift to the Alternative film/video festival, establish the regional and international connections and rejuvenate the network of Alternative in just few months.

In spite of these results, director of SCCC Miodrag Milosevic decides not to employ Bosko Prostran, although all conditions were fulfilled in January 2006. Since then, only Aleksandra Sekulic has been employed in AFC, where two positions were still vacant, and since then our efforts are focused to gather members of AFC and young authors around projects, and at the same time to finish all the regular and inherited work in the functioning of this center.

Thanks to the new projects, ideas and wide network of friends and cooperatives, support we got from Ivko Sesic from the Archive of alternative film and video, but above all to enourmous efforts and enthusiasm of several people who invested their energy in reviving and building of AFC, we managed to develope international collaboration on the production level ( the project Park 4D TV in AFC, supported by Mondriann Foundation and Dutch Embassy in Belgrade; awarded authors from Alternative film/video festival start to use their residency programs in AFC and make new films, like Antonio G. Lauer (a.k.a. Tom Gotovac) with two films, Marianne Holm Hansen, Cristina David, Sergey Provorov and Galina Myznikova, and authors from Serbia like Srdjan Keca and Kosmoplovci, and others..), and programe exchange level, as well as to develope both festival Alternative film/video and Balkanima to grow every year.

As AFC experienced progress and growth of the necessery work, a new practice for this institution was established – internship opportunity, which was a base for the internships of Jana Stefanova, Nadja Leuba, Athanasia panagea, Izabel Herling. This enabled a significant advancement of the organization of two festivals in AFC and international collaboration, so AFC gets a reputation of an important center of international exchange and collaboration. In spite of the rapid growth and success in projects („Videography of the region“, a long term project supported by the Ministry of culture of Serbia; „„+- 40 years: 1968-2008“, dedicated to the anniversary of student protests; „Media archaeology The nineties“), AFC is again in situation of losing the possibility to strengthen its team.

The director desides in the times of biggest challenges in realization of the record number of ongoing projects to cancel the engagement to Ivica Djordjevic, who was planned to be employed permanently after he proved his skillfulness, creativness and dedication in AFC in several festivals and projects, with a shocking explanation that he doesn’t deserve to work in AFC.

The atmosphere of constant discrediting, contempt towards results and administrative pressure, which was intensive even during the biggest manifestations of AFC, and which, unfortunately withnesed the guests of AFC, reaches the culmination with sudden decision to move Aleksandra Sekulic from AFC to the position of the organizer of SCCC, only three days after closing a very successful festival Alternative film/video 2008. On January 15, Miodrag Milosevic takes over the office of AFC and the e-mail address alternative@dksg.co.yu in spite of the warning that this move could endanger the ongoing projects and communication which was built from a scratch through this address. The work on establishing connections and positioning AFC locally and on the international scene, gathering materials for the projects among which is also „Media archaeology: The nineties“ was stopped bluntly, and the team who so far endured all the pressures is not allowed to use normally the space of AFC, and currently works in Archive of alternative film and video, where we have support.