19th Interaction Camp Begins – Participants Arrive from 11 Countries

The introductory workshop was traditionally held at the Cultural Center of Belgrade

On Saturday, August 10, with the arrival of fourteen participants, students from film academies in 11 countries (Austria, Bangladesh, Estonia, Croatia, India, Poland, Romania, Russia, USA, Serbia, and the United Kingdom), the 19th Interaction: Student Film Camp began. During the introductory workshop at the Cultural Center of Belgrade, the participants were addressed by Zorana Đaković Minniti, Assistant to the Program Director at the Cultural Center of Belgrade, Dejan Petrović, Artistic Director of Interaction, Predrag Živković, Executive Producer of the Interaction Camp, and Efim Graboy, Mentor of the Camp.

During their stay at the Camp, from August 10 to 26, the participants will first work on researching stories for their films, and then they will shoot and edit their documentaries. After the introductory workshop, the students traveled to Čačak, Užice, and Požega, where, divided into three crews, they will film three short documentaries.

The selected participants are working under the mentorship of Efim Graboy, an Israeli director and alumnus of the Interaction Camp, and the films will be pre-premiered on August 26 at the closing ceremony of the Interaction Festival in Užice, and traditionally the day after at the Hall of the Cultural Center of Belgrade.

This year’s Camp participants – students of directing, cinematography, editing, sound design, and production, had the opportunity over the past two months to attend online lectures by award-winning documentarians from the USA – Jamie Meltzer, a professor at Stanford University, and Chris Filippone, whose documentary Huntsville Station, co-directed with Professor Meltzer, premiered at the Berlin Festival. Additionally, Meghanne Barker, an anthropologist and lecturer at UCL’s Institute of Education in London, and Uroš Živković, Program Director of Returning Point, shared their experiences on circular migration with the Camp participants.

More about this year’s Interaction Camp participants can be found HERE.

Interaction 2024 is organized by the Independent Film Center Filmart, as part of the Užice – Capital of Culture of Serbia 2024 programme, in collaboration with the Užice City Cultural Center, and with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Serbia, the Film Center of Serbia, the Ministry of Tourism and Youth, the City of Užice, the City of Čačak, the Municipality of Požega, the US Embassy in Belgrade, support from the Swiss government within the Culture for Democracy project implemented by the Heartefact Fund, the Visegrad Fund, CEI – Central European Initiative, the British Council (through the CC4WBs program), the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Belgrade, Media Desk – Creative Europe Serbia, the Austrian Cultural Forum, Cinnamon Films and Textil Užice companies, the Business Club of Western Serbia, and other partners.

PHOTO: Ivana Aćimović