Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

L’auteur souligne l’importance du film amateur/alternatif
(film a/a) des années 70 et
80 dans son pays, qui incita la
Cinémathèque de Slovénie et les Archives
Slovènes du film à entreprendre conjointement
une recherche sur ce sujet.
La projection de films inédits de Franci Slak,
Zvonko Coh, Milan Eric, Bostjan Hladnik et
Vinko Rozman, complétée par des programmes
consacrés à Vasko Pregelj, Nasko
Krisnar, Karpo Godina et autres, servira de
matière à la publication d’un ouvrage sur Le
film amateur/alternatif (a/a) Slovène.
L’article fait ensuite l’historique du
développement du mouvement du cinéma
a/a slovène et de ses étapes successives: la
période du Centre culturel des étudiants
(SKUC), qui en 1974 devint le Centre pour
le film amateur des étudiants; la période du
Redaction film (1985-1992) et, finalement,
la période E-motion film inaugurée par la
réalisation de La reine de coeur en 1991.
international experimental styles of the 20s, the type of film we have
identified as a/a represents for the Slovenian context a sort of avantgarde,
a tradition of difference, experimentation, and in general distance
from the sanctioned practices of film-making. Slovenian a/a has a closer
relation to the Lumiere form of visual inquiry, a documentary approach
to visual experiment that has less to do with the more theoretically driven
avant-gardes of Western Europe or the Soviet Union. Some of the
first important experiments in the Slovene context came in the 50s
(Hladnik), followed in the 60s by individuals (Rozman, Godina, Pregelj)
and also some collectives (the group OHO). Some of this work arose as a
kind of parallel or remainder to the state film production monopolies
such as Triglav and Viba, but as a rule, these films were the products of
strictly amateur production techniques, generally employing 8mm,
S8mm or 16mm film (and giving way completely in the 80s to video
production). Today, the amateur film formats are considered nostalgic, or
even historical.
The beginnings of Slovene a/a film can be traced to Bostjan Hladnik.
Although Hladnik’s career has yet to be comprehensively documented.
Lilijana Nedic’s systematic filmography of Hladnik’s work appears in a
book about the 1961 film Ples v dezju (Dance in the Rain) by Zenko
Vrdlovec. This book, “Ples v dezju”: by Slovenski gledaliki in filmski
muzej (Ljubljana, 1991), describes some of Hladnik’s creative work. He
began his a/a film production in 1947, the year of the remarkable Deklica
v gorah (A Girl in the Mountains), a film in 8mm black-and-white without
state subsidy and created outside of official circles of film production
which is definitely in the a/a tradition. It is interesting that this film was
made the same year as the first Slovene sound feature, France Stiglic’s Na
svoji zemlji (On Our Own Land). Up until 1945, film production had
been almost entirely amateur and private in nature. A “cinema system”,
which was co-financed by the state (production, distribution, regular
reviews and publicity) arose only after the Second World War in
Slovenia. It is probably no coincidence that the creation of a state cinema
coincided with the appropriation of amateur means of non-official
expression. Hladnik’s personal productions of the 50s (eg. Pravljica o
ljubezni/A Fairy Tale about Love of 1954) as well as his work with Triglav,
the state film production company (eg., Fantasticna balada/A Fantastic
Ballad of 1957) reveals a decidedly experimental tendency.
After Hladnik’s work, there was a relatively active ambient of a/a production
which existed from the 50s to the 70s. The activities of the OHO
group are the best documented of these development, but an adequately
comprehensive and accurate account of this period has yet to be written.
One important part of this history will be that of the SKuC/Studenski
Kulturni Center, which was known in its various phases under the
names Center for Student Amateur Film, Center for Student Film, Film
Redaction and then E-Motion Film. This Center had as its goal the support
of a wide range of alternative and experimental activities in the
sphere of film culture. For more than twenty years, SKuC supported,
stimulated, exhibited and encouraged all forms of production and film-
38 Journal of Film Preservation / 53 / 1996