Memories, lessons and resistance

Memory, family, resistance - the sublimation of the second evening of the UnderhillFest International Documentary Film Festival.

Although the program featured three, seemingly completely different films: “Slet 1988” Mars Popivoda, "Lessons from my dad" Dalija Dozet and “80 Angry Journalists” Andrasa Foldesa, as the evening progressed, it became clear that they were connected by much more than it seemed at first glance. Each of the films contained elements of memory, recollections, family, community, but also struggle and resistance, along with valuable lessons and cautionary messages. This was confirmed by the most persistent and loyal followers and fans of Underhill and documentary films, who watched all three screenings on the second evening, until almost one hour after midnight. At first, the basketball court in Njegošev Park was filled to the brim, and every chair was occupied even before the screenings began, only to later disperse, but not all...

All three films, each in its own way, completely different from each other in theme, sensibility, message and approach, speak of memory, of what remains behind people, communities, systems and time. And, also, all three films speak of the need not to forget.

Last landing

There are events that only gain their true meaning later, and one such event is undoubtedly the last Youth Day held in the former Yugoslavia in 1988. Although she partially dealt with this in her feature-length documentary-research film “Yugoslavia, how did ideology move the collective body?”, Popivoda now takes viewers back to the JNA stadium in her short film “Slet 1988”. Specifically, she explores the phenomenon of the last Slet, while intertwining it with the diary of a teenage girl written that very year, thus tracing the transition from socialist collectivism to growing nationalism and everything that would follow later.

Youth Day was celebrated in the SFRY on May 25th, when it brought together young men and women from Vardar to Triglav. The holiday began to be celebrated in 1945, on the day when the lifelong president of the SFRY was born. Josip Broz Tito, and until 1957 it was celebrated "only" as his birthday, when that year, precisely at Tito's initiative, it became Youth Day and was celebrated in this way until 1988.

The film clearly shows more or less familiar images of collective enthusiasm, choreographed movements and the common rhythm of a society. However, “Slet 1988” is not a nostalgic look at Yugoslavia. On the contrary, it is a film that, from a present-day perspective, attempts to read the signs of the future hidden in the last great spectacle of a state.

At the center of the story is a legendary ballerina, a dancer Sonja Vukicevic who that year performed her first professional solo performance at the event - the last in Yugoslavia ever, as it turned out. Graceful, elegant, energetic, full of youth and beauty, enthusiasm and passion, Sonja Vukićević performed a professional dance performance, a solo act at the JNA stadium in Belgrade, while nine thousand young people danced with her.

As her body moves through socialist-modernist spaces, the diary entries of a teenage girl from 1988 echo throughout the film, and it is this combination of the private and the collective that forms the backbone of the film and provides insight into the state of the Yugoslav state and society. In moments when thousands of bodies act as one, something new is actually born, an individual is created - individualism, a new social paradigm.

As the director herself previously pointed out in an interview for "Vijesti", this is the first isolated, virtuoso body that is no longer part of the crowd, but becomes its center, while the other nine thousand participants seem to become the set design.

"When we do a visual analysis of that dance, we see that it is a solo dance of gigantic proportions, because the other bodies that participate are placed in the service of the scenography. I think it is a very interesting moment that speaks of the birth of the individual, and even in the choreography itself we can read the birth of the individual and individualism in the late Yugoslav socialist society. On the other hand, already in 1989 we have a change on another level, and that is the transition from the socialist collective body to the national collective body," Popivoda said.

Of course, the film says much more than the ceremony itself or the questioning of Yugoslavia... It talks about the moment when society begins to believe that the individual is more important than the community, but also about the dangers of new collective identities that will soon mark the nineties. It talks about all of this through the perspective of a teenage girl who will only later come to understand society, people and politics in their true light, and ultimately, it also asks the question of when did the end of a community, a society, a world actually begin?

Dad's lessons and memories

After the collective memory, the most intimate thing followed. The film “Lessons from My Father” by Croatian author Dalija Dozet is one of those films that seems to have been found in some family box of memories, which is why it is especially valuable.

After her father's death, the author finds dozens of unlabeled videotapes that he had recorded for years but had never reviewed or edited. And so begins a cinematic, but also a personal journey. Discovering the man she had known her entire life, and whom she is only now, after his death, truly beginning to get to know. As the film portrays, there is a big difference between the father we remember and the man who existed before he became a father.

Through a collage of footage, both Dalija Dozet and the audience watch a young man full of spirit and charisma who fanatically films everything around him, and most of all those he loves the most - his family, friends, colleagues, the city... We meet an energetic, witty, gentle, in love, dedicated young man, man, husband, traveler, friend, worker, father, dad, son... A series of scenes, credibly edited so that they only provide brief insights into segments of a life, make the film tender, but also painful at the same time. Funny, raw and sad, the film is also beautiful, sweet, close, just like a cassette from the family archive that we find after many years.

In "My Dad's Lessons", there are no great historical events or spectacular twists, but there is life - "just life", everyday life, joys, arguments, walks, travels, work, reflections... The ordinary life that we often take for granted. This is where the film hits where it hurts the most, because it reminds us of transience, of the people we love, of the conversations we postpone, of the hugs we think will always be available and of the words that are taken for granted but too rarely said, as well as of the absolute freedom and belonging that we have and feel in the family.

The "father's lessons" collected in the letter resonate particularly strongly, drawing out the trembling of the heart and stopping the lump in the throat. These are perhaps the lessons of every dad and the occasional father, and in which everyone can actually recognize a lesson of their own - one they received or gave... Because of this, and because of all the "lessons", Dalija Dozet's film is more than a family recording of memories. Along with the various lessons, it is above all a reminder to turn to each other while we still have time...

"Well, give me a call when you're near my cell phone, for example. I'll call you right away or when you feel like it, but I don't want to wait that long"...

"There's not much money - but there will be enough for everyone"...

"And one more thing: be good and cheerful to me, give your worries to others, laugh when you get there - both before and after, enjoy everything and everywhere and everything, and when the serendipity gets old, laugh - it doesn't hurt"...

Wonderful and touching "Lessons from my Dad" - for life, for happiness, for love, for memory.

Freedom and resistance of angry journalists

And then came the film that kept the audience entertained until after midnight, which is expected night after night and beyond at Underhill, given the rich, diverse, but also dense repertoire. The film “80 Angry Journalists” perhaps spoke most directly about the times we live in, about the system, about politics, about government, society, media, freedom...

The documentary follows the collapse of the largest independent editorial office in Hungary in 2020 after political pressure and the dismissal of the editor-in-chief of the Index portal, Sabolca Dula. The journalists of the editorial office do not want to remain silent and clearly say at the beginning: "Let's not shut up", unlike many who would like it differently. More than eighty of them are fighting, they do not refuse to agree, but they do not want to leave and abandon the media that they have built together for years - like their own family. Faced with the state of affairs, 80 of them are resigning, because they do not agree to silence, to blackmail, to expectations, to what is imposed, to advice that the headlines be more neutral, they do not agree to editorial policy becoming equal to political obedience, but rather they are worthily preserving the integrity, trust and community that has been built.

The film introduces us to the chaos of a newsroom that is falling apart, while at the same time trying to build something new. We follow meetings, disagreements, fatigue, fears, dilemmas and a huge amount of uncertainty... The causes and consequences are presented precisely and chronologically, and it clearly points to the political system Viktor Orban which gradually took control of independent media in Hungary. But not over the journalists of Index - because they are first and foremost people, journalists and a strong community. More than 80 journalists and employees of Index have resigned, accusing the government of sending an offer to buy a share of ownership with the clear intention of destroying this media. And all this is factually and journalistically presented...

The film also raises the question of what actually constitutes an editorial office. Are they offices, a brand, a portal, the number of views? Or is it a community of people gathered around the same idea, vision, mission, ethically and morally on the same path, all for the sake of the public interest? The story of 80 angry journalists from 2020 to this day is increasingly becoming a story about the fate of numerous media outlets around the world, but also a lesson for all those who face political pressures, economic problems and a crisis of trust, not only in Hungary, Montenegro, but also throughout Europe and the world. The film remains as a testimony to integrity, freedom, truth, resistance, but also the price of all of that.

One story

It seems that the second evening connected the past, family, and struggle, and that the films practically merged into one common story - about the end and the ends, about memories, recollections, struggle, emergence and disappearance...

And one more thing: be good and cheerful, give your worries to others, laugh when you get there - both before and after, enjoy everything and everywhere and everything, and when the serenades get old, laugh - it doesn't hurt", from the film "Lessons from My Dad"