The People Are Present: Films of Želimir Žilnik

September 28–29, 2023

Celebrated Yugoslav filmmaker Želimir Žilnik, who, since the 1960s, has been at the forefront of politically engaged cinema in Europe, joins us in person for two programs of his docu-fiction films.

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Black Film
Pirika on Film
Oldtimer
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Past Films

Pirika on Film
Želimir Žilnik
Serbia, 2013
Thursday, September 28 7 PM
Introduced by Želimir Žilnik, with Pavle Levi and Djordje Popović
A biographical video essay on Pirika, a strong-willed woman living in Serbia, made forty-four years after she appeared as a child actor in two films directed by Želimir Žilnik. With four of Žilnik’s innovative short documentary films about immigrant and refugee experiences.
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Oldtimer
Želimir Žilnik
Yugoslavia, 1989
Friday, September 29 7 PM
Želimir Žilnik, Pavle Levi, and Antje Postema in Conversation
Želimir Žilnik reinvents the road movie with an aged rocker who travels through Yugoslavia and becomes involved in unexpected turmoil: Milošević’s “antibureaucratic revolution.” With Black Film, a short film made with a group of homeless men.
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The People Are Present: Films of Želimir Žilnik

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...

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Guest curated by Pavle Levi and Djordje Popović. Presented in collaboration with the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES) and Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at UC Berkeley, and with the Department of Art & Art History and Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at Stanford University, as part of a tour conceived and coordinated by Greg de Cuir Jr. We are deeply grateful that Žilnik’s visit is made possible with the support of ISEEES, with thanks to Jeff Pennington, executive director, and with support from BAMPFA’s Les Blank Fund. Thanks also to the Berkeley-Stanford New Yugoslav Studies group for their support.

The People Are Present: Films of Želimir Žilnik

The People Are Present: Films of Želimir Žilnik

September 28–29, 2023

Past Films

Pirika on Film

Oldtimer