A new one begins. cultural years, which does not please those who create culture. The practice from last year, which was worse and more difficult than all the previous worst ones, will continue. So, penury and forced idleness.
It's nothing new here power it destroys its own culture. He has been doing this for years, persistently reducing her budget, all the while using the economic crisis and similar excuses as excuses. For this year, it allocated 0,67 percent to culture, which is the lowest in this century and the lowest in the region.
When, ten months ago, the whole of Serbia took to the streets demanding punishment for those responsible for causing the death of 16 people by a carport in Novi Sad, the creators of culture were the most noticeable among them. Theatrical performances, concerts, even the Eurovision Song Contest, ended with shouts of "pump", banners supporting students, showing red palms, and blowing whistles. The energy of freedom from fear reigned throughout the culture, and that should not be allowed in a country like this.
NOT A DINAR FROM THE COMPETITION
The government began to punish individuals as an example to others, with disciplinary measures, salary reductions, various bans - let's remember that the director of the Šabac Theater forbade employees from reading newspapers - and then started with simpler but much more disastrous measures.
At the beginning of February, at the time of large protests, the Government of Serbia adopted a decision by which it takes away 25 percent of the little money it has allocated to culture in order to transfer it to the budget reserve. Without reason or explanation. All sectors of culture suffered: 75 million dinars were taken from local culture, 34 million from publishing, almost 28 million from cultural heritage protection, 20 million from film, and so on.
Less than two months after the announcement of the annual contests for contemporary creativity, the Secretariat for Culture of the City of Belgrade canceled all those contests. Why? Because some members of certain commissions resigned - was the official explanation. The Ministry of Culture has also announced tenders for co-financing cultural projects, but the results are not yet known, even though by law the deadline is at the beginning of April. This means that no one in Serbian culture this year received even a dinar of state money for their work. It is not known what is waiting or why.
When it came time for festivals attended by those who "pump", like Festa, Belgrade's culture secretary Nataša Mihailović Vacić, then the president of the Festa Board, announced that the festival was postponed due to security reasons. She mentioned March, and the latest unconfirmed information is that this year's edition of the Fest will be at the very end of December, which is good news considering that all the others (change of Board members, never smaller budget - 20 million dinars, late appointment of selectors) announced that it would not take place.
The March festival was also postponed, first to April, and then until further notice. Bitef will not be held in September as before, November is mentioned. Until this summer, it was not known whether it would be held at all, but the latest news is that things are going their way and that the program will be announced two months before the start of the festival, as prescribed. The city assembly, which is the founder of these and many other festivals in the capital, has not yet signed the contracts on their realization, so it is currently uncertain what will happen to them this year.
LOYAL PROGRESS, STAY STILL.
Between winter and spring, cultural institutions went on strike. The Belgrade Philharmonic for the longest time, even a month. They had only two demands: an urgent improvement of their material situation and an urgent opening of the competition for the director of the Belgrade Philharmonic. They did not ask that arrogant drivers stop bumping into their members while they were paying their respects to those who died in the Novi Sad accident on the sidewalk in front of the Philharmonic building. Apart from them, it seems that the entire culture throughout Serbia went on strike because they support students and because they are demanding their rights. At one point, around mid-March, nine museums and all theaters went on strike in Belgrade alone. The authorities told them that they are pests, traitors, idlers and the like and that they will not pay such people.
That the government supports culture was pompously emphasized at the opening of the manifestation Zrenjanin - Capital of Culture in Serbia this March, only to abandon the planned programs after only three weeks. It turned out that there was no money in the City's budget for that purpose, and the money announced to Zrenjanin by the Ministry of Culture was not mentioned.
At the beginning of spring, it was completely clear that the government had no money for culture and that it had decided to allocate the little it had to loyalists, and at the same time, to take revenge on those who were not loyal because of strikes and protests. It was an undisguised announcement of the creation of a new SNS culture for progressives.
GAGA FESTIVAL
Thus, on Wednesday, September 3, the first National Film and Television Festival - NAFFIT, was opened on Zlatibor, a major state project, a festival that will finally make Serbia the owner of a national festival like Croatia, thanks to Pula, for 72 years. Money was not a problem - for others there was no money, but for the national one it was not to be missed. Thanks to NAFFIT, the cultural centers in Priboj and Nova Varoš, which, along with Zlatibor, also host the festival, were also repaired. Their halls have been digitized, although it is not clear who they will use after NAFFIT. Minister Nikola Selaković has been advertising it for a year since it was formally promoted. Then it was announced that NAFFIT would be the selection festival for our candidate for the Oscar, would it not be bigger than Pulaski, which was denied only last month.
The program of the first National Festival was announced only last week, just before the start. Ten films were selected, seven from Serbia and three from Hungary - the visiting country. It was not said who selected them, and therefore according to no criteria, but it is assumed that it was the director Predrag Gaga Antonijević, a loyal member of SNS, on whose initiative the festival was founded and who, they say in Zlatibor, asks about everything. That's why NAFFIT is affectionately called "Gaga's festival".
This text was created before the official opening of NAFFIT, so it is not known who will attend that historical and state event. We only know that filmmakers will not because the entire Serbian film industry is boycotting it.
The members of the Association of Film Directors of Serbia were the first to call for a boycott. They were followed by all other film associations: screenwriters, documentarians, cinematographers, actors, film artists and producers. However, there should be no doubt that despite the boycott of filmmakers, the opening of Gaga's festival will be festive, because it will be presented to the public by its organizers and all of them who are convinced that they live in the most democratic and safest country that is an economic tiger.
Apart from provoking national awareness among voters and widening the divide between ours and theirs, one of the unspoken and visible reasons why NAFFIT was invented is to create an oasis for SNS members and authors, an oasis where they will have no competition, where they can be the best, where they will not be whistled at and where no one will "pump". It is a self-sufficient festival, made in spite of those others who are everything this one is not.
THE DEBACLE OF PROGRESSIVE CULTURE
NAFFIT's model for establishing a new, loyal culture was tested at other events this summer. That's right, when there was a danger that the Film Screenplay Festival in Vrnjačka Banja would be left without competitors because the producers and authors of the films do not want to be part of the kitsch circus that this extremely important and beloved festival has turned into, the organizers (read the local government and Željko Mitrović) created, we can say, a festival of films produced by "Apollon media". Namely, out of nine participants, seven were from the house of Željko Mitrović. And when he ran on stage to take a bow, the audience on the Summer Stage booed him. There is no one who has not seen that clip.
Then, when the Zaječar guitar band canceled the participation of the Goblins because of their positive attitude towards the student protests, and when 10 of the 12 leading bands left because of that, Zaječar decided to organize the festival anyway. He invited other bands, moved the whole event to a smaller space, in Felix Romulijan, a monument under the protection of UNESCO, he lowered the price of tickets to 300 dinars, but - the Gitarijada, a favorite manifestation, passed almost without visitors. The SNS administration of Niš had the same experience: when the Association of Film Actors canceled the "Film Encounters" due to the situation in the country, the government there decided to pay them back with a new event. She quickly founded "Meetings at the Fortress" and showed classic domestic films for three days in front of 3000 empty seats in the Fortress. Shameful for Nis, for the actors, for the Serbian film. The same thing happened to the "Beer Fest" in Belgrade. And unlimited free beer was distributed.
Money spent on everything counted is money wasted. Serbia will not SNS culture. In short – a total debacle of the regime.
Well, the government boycotts culture, culture boycotts the government and so on this whole year...
