Between Heritage and Film – Voices of the Community: A Cultural Encounter of Art, Community, and Media in Pula

After the successful realization last year in Tkon on the island of Pašman, the interdisciplinary project “Between Heritage and Film – Voices of the Community” is coming to Pula, where a rich cultural program will be held from September 22 to 25 at the Club of Pula Film Factory (Stiglicheva 12). Through lectures, workshops, exhibitions, and film screenings, visitors will explore how film and photography can become powerful tools for understanding local heritage, social processes, and collective memory.

Program

Monday, September 22

19:00 – Opening of the exhibition “Stone from the Water – Guardians of the Fields”, a documentary-artistic research on the wells of Pašman, produced by Teatar od soli.

20:00 – Lecture by Boris Bakal: “Film and Manipulation / Forbidden Films”, analyzing the ideological mechanisms of power that, throughout history, determine what we are allowed to see and what remains censored.

Film has always been both magic and weapon. What seduces us with light on the screen often hides dark intentions: ideological, religious, political, or sheer greed. From the “children’s fairy tales” of the Cold War and obscure soft-porn classics shot on the Adriatic, to the brutal masterpieces of Pasolini, Makavejev, Vreven, and Stojanović, the history of film is filled with bans, silences, fabrications, and manipulations.

This lecture explores the mechanisms of power that decide what we are allowed to see and what remains locked away in archives. Beneath layers of censorship, we discover how film can be a mirror, a lure, but also the most sophisticated persuasion machine.

Tuesday, September 23

20:00 – Lecture-performance: “Different Voices of Film” by Boris Bakal, where the audience participates as co-authors in a collective exploration of the community’s cinematic memory.

Film is not just a dream machine – it is also an archive of collective memory. From the Lumière brothers and Promio, through Fassbinder’s wounds in the urban fabric, to Loach’s portraits of working-class communities – the camera sees more than the eye. It reveals cracks in facades, bricked-up passages, crime scenes, and quiet truths that a community guards.

This lecture does not treat the audience as passive spectators, but as co-creators of a participatory performance. Film and photography become tools for engagement – for discovering, recording, and recognizing our own heritage. Different voices of the community become different voices of film: what do spaces tell us when viewed through a cinematic lens? How does film preserve, expose, and fabricate history, identity, and everyday life, creating space for diverse community voices?

Wednesday, September 24

20:00 – Lecture: “Reinterpreting Film Heritage” by Elvis Lenić and Marko Zdravković-Kunac, followed by a screening of the experimental documentary film Monologue on Pula, created from archival footage from the Non-professional Film Collection of Istria.

The experimental documentary Monologue on Pula, inspired by Ivan Martinac’s cult Monologue on Split from the early 1960s, closely follows Martinac’s script, intertwining visual elements of the Mediterranean, transience, and death through archival footage of Pula from the 1970s and 1980s, produced by the Jelen Film Club.

Thursday, September 25

19:00 – Presentation of workshop participants’ works: “Film and Photography as Tools for Exploring the City.”

20:00 – Closing of the exhibition “Stone from the Water – Guardians of the Fields.

Workshop: Film and Photography as Tools for Exploring the City

As part of the program, a creative two-day workshop will be held on September 23 and 24 from 5 to 7 PM, aimed at youth and all interested participants. During a walk through Pula, participants will photograph interesting motifs and urban stories, and then transform them into a collaborative short animation with their own voice recordings.

The workshop is led by Boris Bakal (Shadow Casters) and Marko Zdravković-Kunac (Pula Film Factory). The workshop is experiential, participatory, and fun, and applications can be made via email at: pulskafilmskatvornica@gmail.com or by phone at +385 95 55 818 83.

About the Workshop Leaders

Boris Bakal – Creative producer, theater and film director, actor, intermedia artist, social and cultural activist, interdisciplinary public historian, curator, and educator. He leads the international artistic platform Shadow Casters. Over his 40+ year career, he has created numerous projects presented and/or produced at festivals and events in over 20 countries. Since 2001, he has led Shadow Casters, which has received many national and international awards. In 2011, he founded the film school Frooom! for children and youth, providing media and digital literacy education in 11 cities across Croatia. He is a recipient of the ArtsLink award and a member of the Croatian Freelance Artists Association, the Association of Croatian Architects (UHA), ACHS (Association of Critical Heritage Studies), EEPAP (Eastern European Performing Arts Platform), and CAA (College Art Association).

Marko Zdravković-Kunac – Editor, producer, film educator. In the late ’90s, he became program coordinator of Autonomous Cultural Factory – ATTACK, and co-founded the FAKI (Festival of Alternative Theatre Expression) in 1998. In 1999, he co-founded Fade In, where he produced over 150 socially engaged reports for Croatian National Television (HRT). He has worked on theater and film projects and as a professional editor for various studios and broadcasters. In 2004, he founded the Pula Film Factory to develop film culture, production, and systematic education of filmmakers. He produced four seasons of the civic education and media literacy TV show Medionauti (2016–2019) and two series of short documentary films Istrian Stories (2017–2021). Within PFT, he has led over 500 programs, 50 workshops, and produced over 200 films.

In Conclusion

The project “Between Heritage and Film – Voices of the Community” invites all citizens of Pula to actively participate in exploring the connection between space, community, and art through film and photography. The program offers an experiential approach, a dialogue between artists and the community, and a space for creative expression and collective reflection on contemporary identity.

All events take place at the Club of the Pula Film Factory. Admission is free.

The project “Between Heritage and Film – Voices of the Community” is organized by Teatar od soli in partnership with Shadow Casters, Pula Film Factory, DC Rojc, and Arla Đakovo.

This event is part of the Clubture-HR program exchange and cooperation platform, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, Kultura Nova Foundation, City of Zagreb Office for Culture, Intercity and International Cooperation and Civil Society, and the National Foundation for Civil Society Development through the Knowledge Hubs program.