Non-Aligned Newsreels
Mila Turajlić & Maja Medić / Serbia
An artistic research project re-activating forgotten archives of 1960s liberation movements and newly-independent countries in Africa filmed by Yugoslav cameraman. The resulting exhibition on cine-collaborations and live cinema event seeks to extend the gestures of solidarity with which the original films were created, by inviting communities featured in the footage to engage with them.
Non-aligned Newsreels is a multimedia archival project, taking audiences on a journey through the vast archives of Stevan Labudović, cameraman to Yugoslav President Tito, opening the door into a dramatic moment in history in which Yugoslavia found itself at the heart of a project of decolonisation and the birth of the Third World.
The exhibition aims to provoke a new perspective and understanding of the role cinema has played – and images continue to play – in the construction of our political imaginaries. The live cinema event and performances raise questions about the cinematic transmission of the past via generational interpretations of collective memories, as these are affected by violent ruptures in national and historical narratives. We want audiences to come away enriched through encounters with various archival materials, the discovery of unknown film archives, sound recordings, reading documents and personal correspondence, having actively pieced together the story in a way that echoes the research process itself.
