The Cinema Makers: Public Life and the Exhibition of Difference in South-Eastern and Central Europe since the 1960s

258 Pages·2013·6.32 MB·English

by  Anna Schober

THE CINEMA
S
c
h
o
b
e
r
by Anna Schober
MAKERS
Public life and the
exhibition of difference in
south-eastern and central
Europe since the 1960s
T
H
The Cinema Makers investigates how cinema spectators in south-eastern and central European
cities became cinema makers through such practices as squatting in existing cinema spaces, E
organizing cinema ‘events’, writing about film and making films themselves. Drawing on a

corpus of interviews with cinema activists in Germany, Austria and the former Yugoslavia, C
Anna Schober compares the activities and artistic productions they staged in cities such as
I
Vienna, Cologne, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Ljubljana, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Subotica, Zagreb and N THE CINEMA
Sarajevo. The resulting study illuminates the differences and similarities in the development
E
of political culture – and cinema’s role in that development – in European countries with
pluralist-democratic, one-party socialist and post-socialist traditions. M
Key features include: A
• an account of cinema as a political and social transnational movement emerging with
by Anna Schober
M
‘1968’ that contests reigning forms of managing and controlling difference connected to MAKERS
the modern nation state
A
• an exploration of theories and conceptions of the public sphere and how they connect to Public life and the
K
cinema as an urban arena exhibition of difference in
E
• a close reading of films by authors produced by cinema activism of the 1960s, such as south-eastern and central
Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Dušan Makavejev R Europe since the 1960s
• follow-up cinema activist groups since the 1990s, such as clandestine flash mob S
cinemas, ethnic or queer cinema initiatives (in central Europe) or short-film cinema
activism (in ex-Yugoslavia), confronting the violence of war and ethnic cleansing with an
emphatic use of humour
Anna Schober is Mercator visiting professor at Justus Liebig University Giessen.
intellect | www.intellectbooks.com
The Cinema Makers
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The Cinema Makers
Public life and the exhibition of diff erence in
south-eastern and central Europe since the 1960s
Anna Schober
intellect Bristol, UK / Chicago, USA
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First published in the UK in 2013 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2013 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2013 Intellect Ltd
Cover photos: © xscreen, xscreen archive Berlin, courtesy Wilhelm Hein and
© Živojin Pavlovic´, courtesy Jugoslovenska Kinoteka, Belgrade.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
The printing of this book was kindly supported by the Austrian Ministry
for Science and Research and the Department 7 – Cultural Aff airs of the
city of Vienna.
Cover designer: Holly Rose
Production manager: Tim Mitchell
Copy-editor: MPS Technologies
Typesetting: Planman Technologies
ISBN 978-1-84150-515-2
EBook ISBN 978-1-78320-069-6
EPub ISBN 978-1-78320-070-2
Printed and bound by Charlesworth Press, UK
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements xi
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: In the middle of things: city, cinema and the public sphere 9
1.1. Cinema’s potential for creating a public sphere 13
1.2. Diff erence and the unfamiliar 23
1.3. The subject in process: rituals, revolt and storytelling 34
Chapter 2: Movements and places: modern order and
the cinema-squats of the 1960s 45
2.1. Cinema and the modern attempt to eliminate ambivalence 48
2.2. To become cinema-makers: expanded and other cinemas,
the Crni Talas and OHO 61
2.3. Transnationality: interaction and struggle vis-à-vis offi cial strategies 75
2.4. Diff erence, privatized ambivalence and the (informal) public sphere 99
Chapter 3: Films and urban interventions: the rediscovery of diff erence
since the 1960s 141
3.1. The migrant guest worker: Fassbinder’s interventions in the
projection spaces of the imagination 143
3.2. The fi guration of diff erence as aesthetic, sexual and ethnic diff erence
in Yugoslav cinema since the 1960s 159
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Th e Cinema Makers
Chapter 4: Follow-up initiatives 185
4.1. Violence and humour: cinema activism in times of war 187
4.2. Enthusiasm and critique: cinema between fl ash mob, new urban
transition spaces and art 199
Interviews Cited 223
References 227
vi
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List of Illustrations
Figure 1: Le Refl et from the series Périphérique, Mohamed Bourouissa, 2007–2008
© Mohamed Bourouissa, courtesy the artist and Kamel Mennour, Paris.
Figure 2a–b: Community cinema for a quiet intersection (against Oldenburg), Rirkrit
Tiravanija, installation at the City of Architecture Festival in Glasgow,
Scotland, September 1999 © Rirkrit Tiravanija, courtesy Th e Modern Institute,
Glasgow.
Figure 3: Proposed monument for the intersection of Canal Street and Broadway, N. Y. C. –
block of concrete with the names of war heroes, Claes Oldenburg, 1965 © Claes
Oldenburg, 1965, courtesy digital image: New York, Th e Museum of Modern
Art (MoMA)/Scala Florence.
Figure 4: Murder, Raša Todosijević, 1997 © Raša Todosijević.
Figure 5: C inema nomads, Volxkino, open-air cinema, Vienna, 1996 © St. Balbach Art
Production.
Figure 6: Löwen Cinema, Vienna 1947 © Votava Vienna.
Figure 7: xscreen, Cologne, 1968 © xscreen archive berlin, courtesy Wilhelm Hein.
Figure 8: Political cinema, Kino im Kopf Nuernberg © Prinzler and Seidler, Kinobuch,
1975.
Figure 9: Kinoclub Beograd, 1960s © Jugoslovenska Kinoteka, Belgrade.
Figure 10: Logo Freies Kino (Free Cinema), Vienna, early 1970s © Austrian National
Library.
Figure 11: Locating oneself in the city, Logo Kommunales Kino (Communal Cinema),
Frankfurt/Main © Prinzler and Seidler, Kinobuch, 1975.
Figure 12: Poster of Kinoclub Beograd, with logo of the Kino Savez (cinema association
of Yugoslavia), 1960 © Jugoslovenska Kinoteka, Belgrade.
Figure 13: Zurigo, Naško Križnar, 1966 © Naško Križnar.
Figure 14: Parada/Parade, Dušan Makavejev, 1962 © Dušan Makavejev, courtesy
Jugoslovenska Kinoteka, Belgrade.
Figure 15: Kinomobil, Nuremberg © Prinzler and Seidler, Kinobuch, 1975.
Figure 16: Poster Intercat ’69 (no dogs allowed), New York 1969 © Anthology Film
Archives, from the collection of the Austrian Film Museum.
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Th e Cinema Makers
Figure 17: A convicted fi lm, Grad/Th e City, Živojin Pavlović, Marko Babac, Kokan
Rakonjac, 1963 © Courtesy Jugoslovenska Kinoteka, Belgrade.
Figure 18: Cinema initiative Bochum © Prinzler and Seidler, Kinobuch, 1975.
Figure 19: Tomislav Gotovac, Pokazivanje časopisa Elle/Showing Elle, 1962 © Tomislav
Gotovac, courtesy Th e Art Collection of Erste Group.
Figure 20: Mlad i zdrav kao ruža/Young and Healthy as a Rose, Jovan Jovanović, 1971
© Jovan Jovanović.
Figure 21: Male Nude Film, xscreen poster, Cologne 1969 © xscreen archive berlin,
courtesy Wilhelm Hein.
Figure 22: Nivea, Expanded Cinema Performance, Peter Weibel, 1967 © Peter Weibel.
Figure 23: Revolutionary Latin American Film, Cover Magazine Kritischer Film (Critical
Film), 1972 © Austrian National Library.
Figure 24: Mud, Rani radovi/Early Works, Želimir Žilnik, 1969 © Želimir Žilnik.
Figure 25: Village Habits, Filmska Kultura, 1970 © Filmska Kultura and Želimir Žilnik,
courtesy Slovenksa Kinoteka, Ljubljana.
Figure 26: Eve of Destruction, Naško Križnar, 1966 © Naško Križnar.
Figure 27: Silver City, Wim Wenders, 1969 © Wim Wenders, courtesy German
Filminstitut, Frankfurt.
Figure 28: Lice/Th e Face, Ivan Martinac, 1962 © Ivan Martinac, courtesy Jugoslovenska
Kinoteka, Belgrade.
Figure 29: Buđenje pacova/Th e Rats Woke Up, Živojin Pavlović, 1967 © Courtesy
Jugoslovenska Kinoteka, Belgrade.
Figure 30: Commenting glances, Angst Essen Seele Auf/Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Rainer
Werner Fassbinder, 1973–1974 © Peter Gauhe, courtesy German Filminstitut,
Frankfurt.
Figure 31: Sensualities of surfaces, Angst Essen Seele Auf/Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Rainer
Werner Fassbinder, 1973–1974 © Peter Gauhe, courtesy German Filminstitut,
Frankfurt.
Figure 32: Lovers, Die Ehe Der Marie Braun/Th e Marriage of Maria Braun, Rainer Werner
Fassbinder, 1978–1979 © German Filminstitut, Frankfurt.
Figure 33: Dreaming of becoming someone else, Katzelmacher, Rainer Werner
Fassbinder, 1969 © Fassbinder Foundation, courtesy German Filminstitut,
Frankfurt.
Figure 34: Self-Transformation, In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden/In a Year of 13 Moons,
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978, produced for the WDR, Westdeutscher
Rundfunk © WDR. Westdeutscher Rundfunk.
Figure 35: Selbstportrait als Frau/Self-Portrait as a Woman, Peter Weibel, 1967 © Peter
Weibel.
Figure 36: Moments, Ljubavni slučaj ili tragedija službenice P.T.T./Love Aff air, or the
Tragedy of the Switchboard Operator, Dušan Makavejev, 1967 © Dušan
Makavejev, courtesy Jugoslovenska Kinoteka, Belgrade.
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List of Illustrations
Figure 37: Fur and skin, Ljubavni slučaj ili tragedija službenice P.T.T./Love Aff air, or
the Tragedy of the Switchboard Operator, Dušan Makavejev, 1967 © Dušan
Makavejev, courtesy Jugoslovenska Kinoteka, Belgrade.
Figure 38: Raika, Čovek nije tica. Ljubavni fi lm/Man is not a Bird. A Film Romance, Dušan
Makavejev, 1965 © Dušan Makavejev, courtesy Jugoslovenska Kinoteka,
Belgrade.
Figure 39: Ironic representation, WR: Misterije organizma/WR: Mysteries of the Organism,
Dušan Makavejev, 1971 © Dušan Makavejev, courtesy Jugoslovenska Kinoteka,
Belgrade.
Figure 40: ‘Stevan’, Virdžina/Virgina, Srđan Karanović, 1991–1992 © Srđan Karanović,
courtesy Jugoslovenska Kinoteka, Belgrade.
Figure 41: Hypersexual public appearance, Saturday night outfi t, Dragan Petrović, 1990s
© Dragan Petrović.
Figure 42: Mikrokino, Low-Fi Video, Fest 2002 in Belgrade © Low-Fi Video.
Figure 43: Nineteen ili kineske baterije/Nineteen … or Chinese Batteries, Aleksandar
Vasiljević, 2001 © Aleksandar Vasiljević.
Figure 44: Tito po drugi put među Srbima/Tito’s second time among the Serbs, Želimir
Žilnik, 1993 © Želimir Žilnik.
Figure 45: A Wall Is A Screen, International Short Film Festival, Hamburg, 2005
© Schweizer, courtesy A Wall Is A Screen.
Figure 46: First Turkish Women’s Film Festival in the Topkino in Vienna, April 2007
© Anna Schober.
Figure 47: Identities Queer Film Festival, 2011 © DV8-FILM, identities 2011.
Figure 48: Kurdish Film Festival in Vienna, 1999 © 3007 agentur, photo: Mehmet Emir,
courtesy fi lmcoop WUK.
Figure 49: Th e Looking-Glass Photos, Helga Härenstam, 2009 © Helga Härenstam.
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