Re-examining Socialism

This year’s third edition of Zagreb’s Subversive Film Festival will be held in several locations across the city between the 1st and the 25th of May. Its theme, reflected in films and various other theoretic and artistic events, will be a re-examination of the emergence, significance, and sustainability of socialism.

Prompted by the economic crisis, which has rocked the seemingly solid capitalist system over the last few years, organizers of this year’s edition of Zagreb’s Subversive Film Festival will examine subjects tied to socialism, which is the main theme of the announced films, lectures, and other related projections.
The novelty of this year’s edition of the festival, which will be held in several cinemas, Europa, Grič, and SC, as well as the building of the former Museum of Contemporary Art, are separate programs that will allow the visitors to enjoy a rich festival program throughout May.

Between the 3rd and the 7th of May, cinema Europa will feature a large international conference named “The collapse of neo-liberalism and the idea of socialism today” in which numerous intellectuals from across the world will participate; these lectures will also be simultaneously interpreted.
This year’s film program has three focuses: a retrospective of Yugoslav film, Latin American and East European cinema, and film as subversive art.

The retrospective of Yugoslavian film will feature 75 feature-length films made between the early 1950’s and late 1980’s. It will also include some one hundred animated films made at the renowned Zagreb School of Animated Film. The second part of the program, scheduled to take place at the cinema of the Studentski Centar between the 9th and the 15th of May, will feature a selection of Latin American and East European cinema; it will present the revolutionary film modernism of the 1960’s and the 1970’s as well as an overview of contemporary Latin American production. The third part of the film program, entitled “Film as Subversive Art”, will take place between the 17th and the 22nd of May at cinema Grič. Numerous creators of contemporary political film will be introduced during those three days of this special film program, and a three-day symposium on Yugoslav film from the same period will also be held.

From concurrent and free programs, we would like to mention the large exhibition “Art always has consequences”, which will be set up in the former building of the Museum of Contemporary Art, where it can be seen between the 8th of May until the 2nd of June.