The Third Interaction Short Documentary Film Festival Opens

The Festival Kicks Off with Three Documentaries Addressing Issues of Migration and Belonging

On August 20, 2024, at 9 PM, in the Garden of the City Cultural Centre in Užice, the third Interaction Short Documentary Film Festival was officially opened. This edition of the Festival was inaugurated with the programme In Focus: Hometactics, selected by Nadica Denić from the Netherlands, dedicated to the timeless theme of exploring belonging, migration, and the changes brought about by modern life. The audience had the opportunity to watch three outstanding documentaries: Longing For Light (Alba Cros Pellisé, 2023), I Don’t Feel At Home Anywhere Anymore, (Viv Li, 2020) and Mother Earth’s Inner Organs (Ana Bravo-Perez, 2022)

At the opening ceremony, the audience was addressed by Dejan Petrović, the artistic director of the festival, Filip Baralić, the director of the City Cultural Centre Užice, Jelena Raković Radivojević, the mayor of Užice, Nađa Lapčević, the festival producer, and Nadica Denić, the curator of the In Focus programme.

During the festival, the competition programme will feature 15 short documentaries carefully selected by the festival’s artistic director, director Dejan Petrović, and programme advisor Andrew Mohsen, an Egyptian film critic and programmer for numerous festivals.

Additionally, two non-competitive programmes, In Focus and Interscreen, will showcase selected short documentary films. The In Focus programme was curated by guest selector Nadica Denić, a film researcher from Amsterdam and a longtime advisor to IDFA festival programmers, while the Interscreen programme traditionally presents selected films from participants of the Camp and Doc Workshop.

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: Antonio Pozojević