Materiality of Memories

Wars leave lasting traces, individual and collective, in bodies and across landscapes; trauma perpetuates. The wars in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s have deeply inscribed themselves in the consciousness of both survivors and their descendants. In the cinematography of the ex-Yugoslavian states and diasporas, an increasing number of films have emerged in recent years which focus on specific traumatic events – namely, the ongoing repression of that which has long been concealed – making use of a wide variety of strategies of reflexive engagement with societies marked by violence. The films gathered here, whether consciously or implicitly feminist, become a means for reflection and processing and therefore change the lives not only of those directly involved. The radically autobiographical perspective seen in the two opening films of the program is one which runs through the entire series. We invite discussion. 

Funded by Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa

Borjana Gaković is a film and media scholar, curator and author. Her work focuses on representations of history and medialities of historiography, European cinema of the 1960s, feminisms in film history and war and trauma in film. Since 2020 she has sat on the Programme and Selection Committee of DOK Leipzig.

Madeleine Bernstorff lives in Berlin, creates film programs (often in collaboration) and works as a teacher and author, e.g. of Transnationales Lernen an der dffb. In 2016/2017 she supervised the production of 23 short video spots Unraveling the NSU Complex! with the SPOTS group.