12/08/2021
In DokuFest you can find films from all over the world and there might be a chance you can get all this internalized in one storyteller. This is the case if Iva Radivojevic, whose short films lined up were shown at DokuKino in Prizren. “Utuqaq”, “Mixba”, “Following Crickets”, “Love comes Slyly like a thief”, “Natto”, “Despers USA”, “Avram” “Between colors of I”, “Notes from the Border”, “Themistokleous 88” and “Quietly I Walk the Wrong Way” screened one after another showing parts of the world seemly unconnected to each other, but they all reflected ways how people live, dream and how they face difficulties.
Radivojevic in the beginning of the screening explained that many films have been shot in different stages of her life, some of them have had the utmost productional refinement and some of them lacked something, but it is all part of the journey. To put it into her words “I do not strive for perfection”.
Opening with “Utuqaq”, film about researchers in the Arctic, exploring the melting of the ice.
In a frightful but quite manner the narrator’s voice said: “Ice has memory”, makes one think more about the necessity to act sooner rather than later about climate change. The depiction of the Artic seems pure and eerie, the soundtrack added the urgent sensation contradicting mobility.
After some time of seeing icy portrayals and we see a few visitors measuring blocks of ice, the narrator declares: “Every day is Monday here”. The stagnation shows shades of ephemerality and wonder, but the struggle to read the situation where all colours have disappeared.
Jumping to “Avram”, a short story displaying honest thoughts about wars, especially the war in Israel and Palestine. The main character, Avram, speaks in a pragmatic way about the unnecessary implications of higher political powers, spending their money to empower wars and not peace.
Radivojevic’s cinematography builds up to momentums suspended in time. Fleeting feelings which find a home in visuals and narrations. The last shown film was “Quietly I Walk the Wrong Way”, a film shot in an iPhone during the pandemic. This film shows in simple ways that those unnecessary shots which take heart-warming feelings which connect a person the power of experiencing simple things in life. Frames of sea, riding a car and domestic situations bring expand the ways storytelling can be from now and on.
All the screenings presented parts of the world which show how conflicts really evolve and how documenting refugee’s, a story of a dead man, a meditative journey of two people who will never meet is in essence what film should explore. The versality shown in these films speak to many levels on how narrating a story can be one sided but at the same time it can become the ultimate truth.
Iva Radivojevic also presented a masterclass at KinoKlub in Prizren.