Split becomes the epicenter of alternative films this weekend.
The Split Film Festival traditionally closes the film-festival summer season in Croatia, and this year will be no different. The 22nd edition of STFF will be held from September 9th to 16th, offering a quality selection of international and independent films, innovative cinematography and visual arts, reports Slobodna Dalmacija on August 25, 2017.
The eight-day festival is open to all film forms, content and various cinematography – including those of the Third World – and will feature a large number of films by established directors, debutants and newly-discovered talents that overcome the commercial constraints. The films this year are categorized into eight segments: Feature and Short Films, Croatian Films, Forums, Extended Frames, New Media, Hommage and Next Door, while workshops and lectures will be held as a special part of the program that will be run by STFF’s domestic and foreign guests.
The festival’s director Branko Karabatić has worked diligently on the program for the last months to continue to focus, dedicate and actively contribute to the development of new trends in cinematography and new media, and to present new, original works, especially independent cinematography and digital creativity.
“The strength of the festival lies above all in the quality of various films selected for excellence, originality and innovation. Thanks to the timely reaction to changes in cinematography and digital media, STFF has the reputation of a festival on the front line of the art of films and is always a step forward in discovering new talents,” says Karabatić.
The theme of the 22. STFF is once again intriguing and follows “(Cruel) reality> <virtual (reality)”.
“Today more than ever in the contemporary history of mankind, there is a lack of boundaries between reality and fantasy, imagination and everyday life, and it is difficult to retrieve it precisely. Almost every segment of life is intertwined with reality and the virtual world, and the theories of parallel universes and multidimensionality have become almost commonplace.
The STFF since the start corresponded with the new and the unusual, and in that sense is the leader of what follows. A film as such is also a combination of two worlds: real and imaginary. The question is why is there a virtual/cruel reality, although the virtual segment that is present in everyday life is most likely to be cruel,” explains Karabatić who was not intent on defining this space as cruel but left room for questioning.
On the subject of virtual reality, in the feature film competition, the STFF has a “Night of a Thousand Hours” by Austrian director Virgil Widrich, which was completely filmed using a virtual set design by “back” projection. In the feature film “Dhogs” by André Goteira, the actors are actually observing subjects, and in the New Media segment, the well-known New York artist G.H. Hovagimyan will present a complex installation of the AT / VR sculpture and, as part of a special program, will hold a lecture titled “Augmented reality – how do I do it”.
The Croatian films in the international competition of feature films at STFF include a rare Croatian title “Kratki izlet” by Igor Bezinovic, and outside the competition, “Mrtve ribe” by Kristijan Milic and “Fuck Off I Love You” by Anđela Jurkasa will be shown.
The Hommage segment is dedicated to the late Werner Nekes, a renowned German director of experimental films who was in Split during the Alternative Film Festival of the 1980s with “Ulysses” and the documentary “Film before the film”. In memory of Nekes, STFF will feature his feature film “The Painter’s Day”.
Likewise, in memory of Tom Gotovac who would celebrate his 80th birthday this year, STFF will present a short video titled “Success Stories – God’s Finger” by Željko Radivoja, which shows Gotovac and Ivan Faktor in 2000 mention Karabatić and Ivan Martinac, who took 17 years to arrive in Split.
Finally, in honor of the great Martinac, this year the STFF will award Croatian authors for their creative and innovative use of film language where expression dominates the use of specific, film-expressive means only available in the media of films.
The jury of the feature film competition includes French filmmaker and producer Caroline Chomienne, director Hrvoje Hribar and British artist and director Matthew Noel-Tod. The jury in the competition of the short films is the film critic Dusko Dimitrovski, Dutch artist and producer Merel Mirage and playwright Ivan Vidić.
More information can be found on the official website.
