3000 € research grant sponsored by Heartefact Foundation is available for research of stories presented at True Stories Market, proposal deadline January 31, 2019.
In 2016 Sarajevo Film Festival launched a new programme – Dealing with the Past. This project is dedicated to the improvement of dialogue in the countries of former Yugoslavia, faced with the deep and far reaching consequences of the aftermath of past conflicts. The film programme features a polyphony of author voices that tackle painful events of recent history. The subjects they explore are different, as are their aesthetic approaches and they confront viewers with unsolved war crimes, ethnic hatred, resurgent nationalism, and many wounds that have yet to heal. In previous years the programme welcomed renewed authors such us Joshua Oppenheimer, Ron Haviv, Ognjen Glavonić, Mila Turajlić, Lars Kraume, Nebojša Slijepčević, Anja Kofmel and others.
In addition to the film programme, the True Stories Market, a unique event that connects filmmakers with organisations that are documenting and researching the Yugoslav wars of the 90’s has been launched with the aim of bringing these stories to wider audiences. Moreover, to facilitate the transition of the stories from the market to the screen, Sarajevo Film Festival is launching an open call for filmmakers interested to execute a project inspired by one of the stories. The Heartefact Fund will award a €3,000 grant to support further research of one of the stories.
Through straightforward application process – we invite filmmakers and production companies from the Southeast Europe to send us their proposals – fiction narrative or documentary feature, the submission deadline is: January 31, 2019. Please scroll down for more details on the application process.
Selected proposal submitted by the production company or the filmmaker will go through intense project development in Sarajevo, in April 2019 and subsequently it will be presented at the biggest SEE industry platform CineLink Industry Days with an aim to attract funders, potential producers and coproducers to engage in this unique process. The process is conceived as a dialogue between organization and filmmaker who can bring unheard, unique story to a broader audience. Ultimately the project once realized will be screened at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
This unique project is supported by Robert Bosch Stiftung and Heartefact Foundation.
Each story is presented by an actual pitch presentation that has taken place in August during 24th Sarajevo Film Festival and accompanied with short synopsis and presentation of the organization who delivered the story.
102 CHILDREN
In the city of Prijedor in 1992, 102 children were murdered solely because of their names. Nermin and Nermina were among the victims, murdered on the doorstep of their home. Today, their father Fikret Bačić leads a group of local residents who are campaigning for a monument to be built in Prijedor that honours the city’s innocent victims. But, contrary to prevailing nationalistic narratives, they want the monument to bear the name of every child killed in the conflict, regardless of their national and religious identity. They are faced with strong opposition from local Serb politicians. Paradoxically, they’re also met with resistance from the Bosniak authorities as well, including the municipality president, who is openly sabotaging their initiative. Not only do the parents have to live with the terrible loss they’ve suffered, they still have to fight the same toxic politics that robbed Prijedor of 102 innocent kids over a quarter of a century ago.
