My Country – Goran Radovanović

MY COUNTRY
A documentary by Goran Radovanovic

Synopsis

Serbia 1999: extreme poverty, corruption, autocracy, ethnic problems, NATO aggression, manipulation of the population through mass media controlled by the state and…hunger for democracy…

Format: Beta SP
R.T: 24 min.
Year: 2000
Country: Serbia
Sound: Dragan Ceneric
Camera: Radoslav Vladic
Editor: Milena Arsenijevic
Writer, Director & Producer: Goran Radovanovic

festivals screenings and prize list

1.”Carolina Film and Video Festival”, USA, March 2000 – The Best International Film
2.”Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee”, USA, April 2000 – The best documentary film
3″North-Soth Media Festival”, Geneve, April 2000 – Special Prize
4. “Elektrozine”, Ibiza ,Spain, April 2000 – The Best documentary film
5. “Video Lisbon”, April 2000
6.”Athens Film and Video Festival”, USA, April 2000
7. “Oberhausen Short Film Days”, May 2000
8. “Williamsburg Brooklin Film Festival”, USA May 2000
9. “San Antonio Underground Film Festival”, USA, June 2000 – The Best Film
10. “Archipelago – Festival of Short Films & New Images”, Rome, June 2000 – Special Prize
11. “Montecatini Film Festival”, Italy, July 2000 The Best Documentary film
12. “Festival internacional de cine independente de Elche”, Spain, July 2000
13. “Jerusalem Film Festival”, July 2000
14. “Seattle Summer Film and Video Festival”,USA, July 2000 The Best Documentary
15. “Providence/Rhode Island International Film Festival”, USA, August 2000
16.”World Wide Video Fetstival”, Amsterdam, Septembar 2000
17. “Dokumentart”, Neubrandeburg, Germany, October 2000
18. “VIPER”, Basel, October 2000
19.”Hope and Dreams Film Festival”, USA, October 2000
20. “Mill Valley Film Festival”, USA, Ocober 2000
21. “Cinematexas”, Austin, USA,, October 2000, Gecko award
22. “3rd Mediterranean Film Festival”, Samos, Greece. October 2000
23. OVNI, Barcelona, 2000
24. “Festival International of Video and Multimedia”, Canaria, Spain, October 2000. The Best Documentary Film
25. “Rights on Reel”, Toronto, Octtober, 2001
26. “Kaseller Documentary Film and Video Festival”, Germany, November 2000
27. “Independent Days”, Karlsruhe, Germany, November 2000
28. “L`Alternativa”, Barcelona 2000
29. Gava International Environmental Film Festival, Barcelona, October 2000, The Best Documentary Film
30. UNAFF, October 2000, Stanford, USA
31. 4th Annual Euro Underground Film Festival, Krakow, October 2000
32. ALTER-NATIVE 8, Romania, November 2000, The Best non-fiction Film
33. Oslo Film Festival, November 2000
34. Wand 5, Stuttgart, February 2001
35. Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Greece, March 2001
36.”One World Film Festival” – Human Rights Film Festival, Prague, April 2001
37.”Videoex”, Zurich, May 2001
38.Voladero Video Festival, Mexico, October 2001
39. Vancouver International Film Festival, Oct- Nov. 2001
40. The 2nd International 1001 Documentary Film Festival, Istanbul , Oct.2001
41. .”One World Film Festival” – Human Rights Film Festival, Warsaw, November 2001
42.”One World Film Festival” – Human Rights Film Festival, Bratislava, November 2001
43. The Images Festival of Independent Film & Video, April 2002, Toronto
44. Festival de Cine de Huesca, Spain,.June 2002.
45. Kontext:Europa 2002 impulse Vom Balkan, Wien, October 2002
46. Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin, February-July 2003

MY COUNTRY is a part of video collection at Berkeley, College of Communication, Boston University, Russian & East European Institute of Indiana University, University of Toronto, University of Arizona, University of Washington, Monash University, University of Michigan, New York Public Library, Stanford University,
Berkeley, University of Graz, University of London etc.

My country

reviews

Rome, “ARCIPELAGO” 2000, Festival of New Films & and New Images

Special Jury Award My Country by Goran Radovanovic

For its pressing and important subject, expressed with originality and cleverness through a balanced and successful mixture of genres.

“International Film Festival OSLO 2000”:

Get ready for a very precise and extremely well made political satire from Serbia – 1999. Sometimes it is hysterically, but the laughter is soon swallowed when it in a masterly fashion depicts human tragedies in a society out of the ordinary. Examples of extreme poverty, corruption and ethnic problems are effectively blended with manipulations from the stately controlled TV broadcaster.

“International Film Festival Euroground” 2000 Krakow (Polen):

Serbia 1999: Extreme Poverty, corruption, ethnic cleansing, NATO aggression, manipulation of population by the state controlled media and a hunger for democracy. Director Goran Radovanovic puts together a documentary that examines these issue with elements of sarcasm and razor sharp political commentary.

“World Wide Wideo Festival”, Amsterdam 2000:

This video combines found footage from the Serbian media with original material in a highly intelligent way. He leaps to and fro between the small and the large, individual and state, appearance and reality; his purpose being to demonstrate both their mutual correspondence and the absurd discrepancies between them.

Film Festival “Alternativa”, Barcelona 2000:

„My country ” is worth a special mention. Goran Radovanovic shows a disturbing picture of a country destroyed by war, autocracy, corruption, ethno-nationalism and widespread poverty. He also reveals the great obstacles for peace and democracy that remain even after the successful October’s uprising.

Sam Adams, Drexel University, Philadelphia, July 5-11, 2002

Goran Radovanovic’s My Country (For Internal Use Only) is a dizzying, multifaceted work that channel surfs through the shifting landscape of present-day Serbia. Heavy with the bitter irony that pervades such regional feature films as Wounds and Cabaret Balkan (The Powder Keg), My Country alternates between excerpts of (presumably) real newscasts and Radovanovic’s own version of reality, which includes everything from an interview with Serbia’s oldest living film extra. The film’s point of view is pretty well summed up in one brusque cut from the voice of Slobodan Milosevic to a shot of a toilet bowl.

My Country: Serbia.(Video Recording Review) (video recording review)
School Library Journal, June, 2003, by Vicki Reutter

videocassette, color. 24 min. TMW Media. 2000, 2003 release. #T1220. $29.95.

Gr 9 Up–This documentary, produced in 1999 by Goran Radovanovic, a native a Belgrade, provides an artistic look at the filmmaker’s country under the role of Slobodan Milosevic. It satirizes what life was like for average Serbians under that autocracy. An elderly man stands in a dumpster he pretends is a car, another man demonstrates his method for cooking a pigeon, and a Gypsy woman tries to get a housekeeping job but faces ethnic discrimination. The human interest close-ups are not narrated and virtually no English is spoken, although dialogue appears in subtitles. Each vignette is contrasted with television news broadcasts or newspaper headlines depicting an optimistic Milosevic and a stable economy–media controlled by the state. While students will be able to identify with the lack of freedom and poverty depicted, they should have prior knowledge about the political situation in the country at the time of the filming in order to fully understand the content of the video. One scene shows a partially nude female college student getting dressed before she delivers a brief message about having to live away from home in Germany. Scenes with young “League of Peace” protesters foreshadow events and could be used as a discussion starter with mature students. The video succeeds as an art film, but may be too sophisticated for most high school Global Studies curriculums.–Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY