In the next edition of De Bouwput Curated Movie Nights, we will be tackling the issues of free cultural spaces and self-organization in Senka Domanovic’s 2018 documentary Occupied Cinema. Occupied Cinema is a film about guerrilla action initiated by young activists taking over privatized cinema Zvezda in Belgrade, Serbia. The film chronicles this activity, paying equal attention to the structural factors that motivated the actors, as well as the internal struggles the collective has experienced in the process.

In Domanovic’s words: “The Occupation of the cinema was an opportunity for people to come together, to self-organize and manage a contained micro economy essentially bypassing the market logic and break away from the ideological apparatus of the state. There we had a rare gathering of artists, activists, former cinema employees, standing up together against the injustice -- and moment later everything collapsed. My film is an attempt to understand this transformation.”

Join us on Friday, December 2nd at 19.30h for film and drinks, and a hearty deliberation on spatial and cultural agency in the increasingly privatized urban environments. After the screening, we will have a short Q&A with the director.

Directors’ statement:

It is commonly held that we are living in times where people have lost their trust in institutions and the state. The Occupation of the cinema was a opportunity for people to come together, to self-organize and manage a contained micro economy essentially bypassing the market logic and break away from the ideological apparatus of the state. There we had a rare gathering of artists, activists, former cinema employees, standing up together against the injustice -- and moment later everything collapsed. My film is an attempt to understand this transformation.

In terms of style, ethics and production, this film relies on the cinéma vérité method. Occupied Cinema, as an investigative documentary, putting things in medias res. The camera doesn't hide its presence, it invites movement members as well as the cinema goers to a dialogue.

Senka Domanović, short biography:

Senka Domanović lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia. Occupied Cinema is her debut feature film.