SPLIT
| 29.09. - 6.10. 2009.DANCE FILM AND VIDEO PROGRAM | WORKSHOPS PROGRAM
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CROATIAN DANCE FILM AND VIDEO Retrospective (1951-2008) |
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Movement in the Moving Images In Croatia, dance for film, television and video is a completely unexplored field of art, there is no place where it is systematically elaborated, stored or analyzed. This selection is only one such attempt which needs to be developed further. In real since of that word, dance film is an autonomous work of art, where the choreography is created with an attempt to be fully realized in the medium of film, television or video, and not a retrospectively directed and edited footage of a dance performance for the live audience. Bearing this in mind, Croatian dance film is a barely existing artistic medium, at least from what is publicly known. However, early after the development of the domestic film, television and finally video art, there were authors who made choreography for camera and were very good at it. There are some today as well, not many of them though, who choose to express themselves using "movement in the moving images". For this occasion with a time limitation, we just want to introduce you to the medium, and accentuate some of the most interesting moments of our dance film history. It is this reason why this selection includes different approaches and poetics of the key dance film authors. First is of course The Secret of the I.B. Castle by Milan Katić, the oldest preserved Croatian dance film from 1951. It is an attractive ballet pantomime, actually a satiric reckoning with the Informbiro Resolution, made after the one-act ballet of the Kerempuh Theatre (Kerempuhovo vedro kazalište) with the lead role played by Silva Hercigonja (a famous Croatian ballerina and dance teacher). It is a film that you will not find in any of the Croatian or Yugoslav film history publications because it was banned and forgotten, and rediscovered again only a few years ago. The following is a short film The Choreography for Camera and Dancers by Vera Maletić and Krešo Golik from 1968. As the founder of The Studio for Contemporary Dance, Vera Maletić was among the first in Croatia to start experimenting with dance for camera together with directors Vladimir Seljan, Mladen Raukar and Krešo Golik. Today she is Professor Emerita at the Dance Department of the Ohio State University where she was first to introduce videodance into the curriculum in the USA. When we speak about the manifestation of dance in Croatian film, television and video art, Milko Šparemblek is the most productive author, even though most of his works were produced outside the country, most of all in Belgium and France. To his manifold artistic talent one can rightfully assign the epithet of a competent filmmaker, because many of the Šparemblek's filmed choreographies, as well as the works created originally for the camera, reflect the author's understanding of the film as a medium. This above all qualifies for the aspiration of creating a new value while confronting the choreography with the film's expressive means, an aspiration which with time and experience has in his case been more and more achieved. Film The Gesture for Tin from 1988 is one of the rare examples of Milko Šparemblek's works made in Croatia, and produced by Croatian Television. Dance video has developed especially thanks to the MTV era, and the hyper-production of music videos. From the Croatian music videos many remember the one made by the theater group Montažstroj from 1991, one of the rare aired on MTV. Its called Croatia in Flame and it was made during the time when Montažstroj was still extremely interested in physical theatre and dance. A special group of dance videos are the ones made from a video footage of the dance performances on specific locations and here the most interesting group is Llinkt! with their video of Check-in(g) dance performed in the airport. From the Sixties on, the emergence and development of video technology and video art has of course influenced the dance video as well, which has in the past few years experienced a great expansion together with many specialized festivals. In Croatia, choreographers never took much interest in trying out the video medium, and today there is only one choreographer that uses film and video as the only means of expression - Liliana Resnick. Her dance film Moments is screened at many film festivals and specialized dance film festivals. It's a very intimate, quiet, strong film, exploring the moments of visual memory. ### Movement in the moving images is a program showing films and videos from Croatian authors that deal with filmed dance and movement, with conversations with authors and people who know their work. It is held at the Cultural Center Trešnjevka in Zagreb during 2009.
1. Tajna dvorca I.B. (1951.), Milan
Katić, gl. uloga Silva Hercigonja, 22 min
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