Herb Shellenberger
htshell.org

Academic Ciné-club was founded in 1958 in Belgrade (Serbia, then Yugoslavia) as an alternative to a thriving postwar institutional ciné-amateur culture that was quickly becoming an impenetrable hierarchy. It offered an open space for experimentation and welcomed cineastes of all types. Very quickly a number of exciting young personalities—many of who would later be counted among the greatest of filmmakers in the history of Yugoslav cinema—flocked to the club and began producing innovative work, including examples of proto-structuralism, poetic documentaries, and lyrical evocations of reality and sur-reality. This program presents some of the groundbreaking films from the history of the club (later re-named Academic Film Center), much of which has not been screened in international settings in a number of decades, providing a glimpse into an invisible history of avant-garde ciné-club culture from a forgotten region.

Triptych on Matter and Death, Živojin Pavlović, 1960, Yugoslavia, digital, 9'
The Wall, Kokan Rakonjac, 1960, Yugoslavia, digital, 8'
Distant Purple Hands, Sava Trifković, 1962, Yugoslavia, digital, 10'
Vowels, Nikola Djurić, 1973, Yugoslavia, digital, 8'
From Me to You, Miodrag Tarana & Mirko Avramović, 1972, Yugoslavia, digital, 3'
Television is a Movie Theater I Go to Sitting in the Backyard, Bojan Jovanović, 1974, Yugoslavia, digital, 5'
Journey, Bojana Vujanović, 1972, Yugoslavia, digital, 2'
Home, Radoslav Vladić, 1977, Yugoslavia, digital, 8'
Organon they asked me…, Zoran Saveski, 1980, Yugoslavia, digital, 9'
Smoke and Water, Dragoslav Lazić, 1962, Yugoslavia, digital, 9'
Straight Line, Tomislav Gotovac, 1964, Yugoslavia, digital, 7'
Circle, Tomislav Gotovac, 1964, Yugoslavia, digital, 9'
Blue Rider, Tomislav Gotovac, 1964, Yugoslavia, digital, 14'

Greg de Cuir, Jr is the selector/programmer for Alternative Film/Video Belgrade. He lives and works in Belgrade as a freelance writer/translator.