The International Festival of Ethnological Film in Belgrade is an event that offeres an insight into a wide range of ethnographic film themes and presents the work of filmmakers who explore both the traditional and modern lifestyles of human communities; it offers diverse insights, film forms and methodologies.
The International Festival of Ethnological Film was established in 1992 and it initially mostly presented the national TV production on folklore and customs of the Balkan and Slavic peoples. Over the years, the Festival began to cover a wide variety of issues in cultural and social anthropology around the world.
Its mission is to foster research and creative approaches to ethnographic documentaries, to educate public on diverse local cultural traditions, as well as to raise voice addressing problems of the modern society, which often neglects the values of cultural heritage.
The Festival is organized annually by the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade. The Museum has recently established the new Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage which will further develop the event. The significant result of the previous festival editions is a video-archive including around 1250 ethnographic films from 80 countries.
The Festival targets young people and the academic population involved in social sciences and humanities, students, scholars and artists. It also endeavours to attract local communities involved in safeguarding their own cultural heritage.
The video archive encompasses titles such as: Saint George’s Da Lamb, Magic Floral Circle, Vampire in Shtubik, Vision Man, Life and Death on the River Gang, Love Vow, The Shutka Book of Records, Shooting with Mursi etc. It also includes the early ethnographic footage dating before and after WWII, such as Wedding in Slanci and Wedding in Topola (by Petar Ž. Petrović, a former curator of Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade). The video copies are stored partly on VHS tapes and nowadays they are being increasingly digitized.
31st International Festival of Ethnological Film
Festival guests – Main competition
Announcing the Special Program dedicated to Sandrine Loncke
Announcing the Special Program dedicated to Peter Ian Crawford
Announcing the In Memoriam Colin Young Special Program
Opening ceremony of the 31st IFEF
31st IFEF – First day and Opening ceremony
Closing ceremony of the 31st IFEF
ITALIAN ROMINA ZANON, JURY MEMBER, ON THE FESTIVAL OF ETHNOLOGICAL FILM AND ON BELGRADE
International Festival of Ethnological film – over thirty years of tradition