Festival explores cultures

Not many know about Southeast European cinema. Come to think of it, not many Americans know much about Southeast Europe at all.

With a lot of help from UCLA student and faculty volunteers, the Southeast European Film Festival, which will run May 3-7 at the Goethe Institute Los Angeles, hopes to convey the diverse cultures of countries such as Bulgaria, Greece and Romania.

“UCLA has been wonderful,” said festival director and founder Vera Mijojlic. “It’s the one single largest source of support this year for us in many aspects, but first and foremost in terms of wonderful people who have come to us.”

This year, UCLA volunteers worked as film liaisons, researched other film festivals and films, wrote summaries of films being screened, posted flyers around campus, called for sponsors, contacted different departments for support, and advertised festival previews via MySpace, Facebook and local newsletters.

“I’ve enjoyed learning how to group people, how to put people to work together on a project,” said Samantha Hammer, the festival’s volunteer coordinator and a fifth-year European studies student.

Hammer spent last year in Budapest, traveling through Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria, heightening her interest in the region.

While some of the films in the festival were produced by Southeast Europeans (many of whom are now working in Los Angeles), others were produced by American filmmakers with a focus on Southeast Europe. Countries represented in the festival also include Turkey, Croatia and Serbia.

“(What we) really would like to do is not just show films, but to educate the American public about Southeast Europe,” Mijojlic said.

The festival has collaborated with the UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies and the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures, both of which can identify with the festival’s goal to bring people together who represent different cultures, histories and politics.

With approximately 50 films, the festival will include U.S. premiers, short films and a parallel program called the “Kiosk Program” featuring young filmmakers’ experimental short films and works-in-progress.

“It’s a great way to bring it to the everyday person because films are so accessible,” said fourth-year European studies student and volunteer Lauren Goldstein.

The film festival started as a project in October 2002. It then side-barred with other festivals for a few years before becoming its own entity two years ago.

“We just got together and felt that we should start the project and go across the cultural and other boundaries in a respectful way to explore cultures, and that was the whole idea of the Southeast European Film Festival,” Mijojlic said. “It’s been difficult in that part of the world, but that was the inspiration for the festival.”

By relating the cultural and political divisions of Southeast Europe to what Mijojlic calls the “Los Angeles cauldron,” Mijojlic hopes to use the experiences of the area to better appreciate the cultural, religious and political differences that divide us.

“I think that it’s almost like a little lab for people here to see the painful experiences of others. The idea is to show that it’s really vitally important to cross the divide in a respectful way,” Mijojlic said.

With Bulgarian film “L’s Rebellion” and Romanian film “The Way I Spent the End of the World” screening on opening night, the film festival is celebrating the two countries’ admission to the European Union this year.

“Every film has been chosen with something in mind. It’s not just about showing movies,” Mijojlic said. “It’s about showing these movies together, so that they form a backdrop, a context for people to better understand Southeast Europe.”

With the help from the UCLA community, especially through volunteers such as Hammer and Goldstein, the Southeast European Film Festival is proving that art can not only entertain, but educate ““ both the festival viewers and the volunteers themselves.

“(The volunteers) are all smart, articulate and capable,” Mijojlic said. “(With them), we have nothing but great experience.”

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