Blog posting written by Lindsay Harrop, Cinema & Photography '13, FLEFF Intern, McMinnville, Oregon

Can you believe that FLEFF week is halfway over? But there are still a ton of screenings and events to come - especially downtown at Cinemapolis!

One of these films is Bastards of Utopia, which will be screening at Cinemapolis Sunday, April 17 at 4:00pm, followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Maple Razsa. I recently had the opportunity to ask Maple some pre-festival questions. If you're interest is piqued - and I know mine is - then be sure to come to Cinemapolis to see the film and ask Maple some questions of your own!

LH: What originally drew you to studying Yugoslavia? And after the collapse, what made you seek out (or how did you discover) the individual subjects of the Bastards of Utopia?

MR: I’ve been traveling and researching in Croatia and the former-Yugoslavia for almost twenty years, since I was an exchange student in high school in 1990-1991.  Originally I went, in part, because I was curious to see what a communist state looked like first hand. Later I became involved in labor and globalization activism in the USA and so I was seeking out ways to combine my interests in activism and my interest in Croatia in my next project. While I was wrestling with these questions I was invited by friends to go to the big globalization protests in Genoa in 2001.  I was surprised to find that the train from Trieste, Italy had a few dozen activists from Croatia.  That’s when I first met the anarchists that I’d work with in making Bastards of Utopia. 

LH: What were some of the difficulties with having such political extremists as your central subjects?

MR: They forced me to ask some hard questions of myself: Was I living in accordance with my own political values? Was I contributing to struggles against injustice?

LH: How do you connect your dual roles as anthropologist and documentary filmmaker?

MR: During my anthropological fieldwork I collaborated with a variety of activist groups of quite different orientations, not only the militant and anarchist-punk scene that came to be at the center of Bastards of Utopia.  We chose to make a film about this scene, and these three activists in particular, because more than any others I met, they were willing to remake their everyday lives on the basis of their ethical and political principles.  Because both Pacho (my co-director) and I are commited to observational filmmaking, we felt this made them the most compelling subjects.  Beyond this ethnographic interest in the everyday aspects of life, we were also committed to long term fieldwork, to really getting to know the people and context we were filming, rather than the quick and dirty journalistic approach (no offense!).  So the film took a long time to make—220 hours of footage shot and edited over 7 years.

LH: How did you choose FLEFF as a venue for the film?

MR: Ithaca College professor Chip Gagnon, who also does research in the former Yugoslavia, learned of my film and brought Bastards of Utopia to the attention of the festival. In any case, I've heard good things about FLEFF for years so I was happy to be invited to screen my documentary.

Thanks to Maple for taking the time to talk to me. Bastards of Utopia promises to be a really great documentary. I look forward to seeing everyone at the screening Sunday!

Blog posting written by Lindsay Harrop, Cinema & Photography '13, FLEFF Intern, McMinnville, Oregon

Fellow FLEFF Intern Abby Sophir has already highlighted her Top 5 films to check out on the Ithaca College campus for FLEFF week. For those interested in heading into town, here are five of the films I'm most excited to be seeing at Cinemapolis! 

1: Bastards of Utopia by Maple Razsa: As a politics student, I love learning about areas of international conflicts and the Balkan States are one of my favorite corners of the world. Bastards of Utopia is about three leftist-Croatian-activists who continue to fight for their political views after the collapse of Yugoslavia. As an added bonus, the filmmaker Maple Razsa will be at the 4:00 showing too! (Screening: Sunday, April 17 @ 4:00pm & 9:30pm)

2: The Last Laugh by F.W. Marnau:  Ithaca College's own award-winning pianist John Stetch will be performing live improvised accompaniment to this 1924 silent expressionist film. This is literally a once in a lifetime event that can never be recreated so make sure to be there! (Screening: Friday, April 15 @ 7:00pm)

3: Plunder: The Crime of Our Time by Danny Schecter: We hear about the financial crisis all the time but this film from "the news dissector" Danny Schechter explores the criminal activities that lead to the collapse of the housing market. Plus Danny Schecter will be present at the 2:00 showing on April 16th so it's definitely one to check out! (Screening: Saturday, April 16 @ 2:00pm & 7:30pm; Sunday, April 17 @ 7:30pm)

4: Four Lions by Christopher Morris: If you're in the mood for a narrative film, Four Lions is the story of an incompetent terrorist cell in the UK. It's a black comedy that's garnered a lot of critical attention and one I'm definitely interested to check out as something different from the mainstream. (Screening: Thursday, April 14 @ 9:30pm; Saturday, April 16 @ 4:10pm; Sunday, April 17 @ 7:40pm)

5: Agrarian Utopia by Uruphong Raksasad: Back to the documentaries, this is a gorgeous film from Thailand following two families trying to get through one more season of rice-farming despite facing seizure of their land. This is an important issue we don't often hear about and I'm interested to look at it from a non-American perspective. (Screening: Friday, April 15 @ 7:30pm; Saturday, April 16 @ 9:30pm)

What other films are you guys excited to see?