Screening: Early Croatian Experiments: Legacy of Genre Film Festival and the Analogue Era

A program of early Croatian experimental films, curated by Diana Nenadic. The most vibrant period of Croatian film experimentation, resulting from the activities of two main cinema clubs (in the cities of Zagreb and Split), is largely connected with the existence of the Genre Film Festival, which was held biennially in Zagreb from 1963 to 1970. The so-called “meeting of film researchers” was initiated by physician and film buff Mihovil Pansini, bringing together filmmakers from all over Yugoslavia, as well as other artists and scientists from various disciplines, for screenings and discussions about the potential of contemporary cinema. The starting point of the festival was the idea of “anti-film”, that is, a film freed from all conventions, norms and meanings, reduced to a pure visual-acoustic phenomenon. However, the festival was also attended by filmmakers ‒ both amateurs and professionals ‒ for whom such an idea was too radical, although some of them anticipated the trends of structural, conceptual and/or politically subversive films with their works. This program represents Croatian participants of GEFF – from creators of “anti-films” (like Pansini and V. Petek) and researchers of the visual and kinetic potential of film (A. Verzotti), to followers of meditative and “pure film” (I. Martinac) or pioneers of structural forms (T. Gotovac), to traditionalist among amateurs who, mocking their experimental peers, signed the most radical GEFF works (M. Šamec and Z. Hajdler). They were joined by two multimedia artists – M. Stilinović and I. L. Galeta, who cherished the GEFF’s spirit in the following decades of Croatian analog experimental cinema.

A special program of Experiments in Cinema v20.0, which runs April 16-20 2025 in Albuquerque, NM. More information about the festival at www.experimentsincinema.org