In cooperation with the Cultural and Information Center (KIC) in Restart’s specialized Dokukino KIC, on September 20th, the cinema premiere of two new films by the renowned regional filmmaker Mila Turajlić, “Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudović Reels” and “Ciné-Guerillas: Scenes from the Labudović Reels”, which together form a documentary diptych that arose from the author’s long-standing fascination with archives, which resulted in the discovery of the incredible, hitherto largely unknown film archive of Stevan Labudović, Tito‘s personal cameraman and one of the important actors of the Algerian war for liberation from French colonial rule.
As an introduction to the premiere screenings, on Wednesday, September 20th, in KIC’s Gallery (Preradovićeva 5), an exhibition called ‘Archival life of the unaligned’ will be opened, and at 8 pm in Dokukino KIC, with the presence of the director, a screening of one of the films will begin , “Ciné-Guerillas: Scenes from the Labudović Reels”.
On Thursday, September 21st, at the same place, second documentary will be shown, “Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudović Reels”, followed by a discussion with director Mila Turajlić, historian Tvrtko Jakovina, Yugoslav Minister of Foreign Affairs and participant in the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement, Budimir Lončar, and the last director of the International Student Friendship Club, which during the Non-Aligned Movement was the main meeting place and support for foreign students, Simo Grbić. The panel will be moderated by Petra Matić, museologist and activist who investigates the heritage of non-alignment in her work.
The exhibition “Archival life of the unaligned” contains photographs and diary entries from the private archive of the Labudović family, as well as video works based on Yugoslav informative films and Film News magazines. The exhibition brings together materials from the long-term artistic research Non-Aligned Newsreels, which Turajlić started in 2015.
The first part of the documentary diptych, “Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudović Reels” deals with the period of the birth of the Non-Aligned Movement, told through the never-before-seen film archive of Stevan Labudović, who followed this movement from its very beginnings, that is, from the historic conference held in 1961 in Belgrade. The film delves into the behind-the-scenes world of the era of personalities, politics and global promises of Third World emancipation, examining how the film medium helped create a vision of a more just world order based on political action in opposition to the Cold War division of the world at the time.
In addition to the function of Tito’s personal cameraman, Stevan Labudović played the role of his life as a “cameraman of the Algerian revolution”, which is dealt with in depth in the second part of the documentary diptych “Ciné-Guerillas: Scenes from the Labudović Reels”. The film introduces the media and the real trench battle that took place during the Algerian War of Independence, in which the film medium played the role of promoting guerilla warfare, mobilizing national liberation and helping in the propaganda war with the French colonial authorities. At the height of the war, Stevan Labudović, with Tito’s authorization, goes to Algeria where he spends three years with the fighters of the National Liberation Front, recording materials that helped to spread their side of the story to the world. Labudović’s recordings were for years the only information about the struggle of the Algerian guerrilla movement, and during a trip to New York, where he was supposed to record Tito’s address to the United Nations General Assembly, he smuggled tapes that were crucial for changing the international attitude towards the struggle for independence, thus opening the path to the recognition of the independence of Algeria.
