Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Series, Želimir Žilnik: Essential Work
This visit from the widely acclaimed Serbian filmmaker will explore his prolific six-decade career and his films that have documented, anticipated, and critically engaged with pivotal sociopolitical events with an experimental documentary style that blurs filmic genres.
Želimir Žilnik (born in 1942; living and working in Novi Sad, Serbia) is among the most influential filmmakers to emerge from southeastern Europe. A prolific and award-winning writer and director, Žilnik creates films that illuminate the connections between political and economic issues and everyday life. His feature and documentary films have captured and responded to the historical moments and existential questions that have shaped the latter half of the twentieth century—from state censorship and the student uprisings of 1968, to the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe, the wars in Yugoslavia, and the rising nationalisms and disaster capitalism of today.
In recent years, Žilnik has been the subject of major career retrospectives at festivals and institutes across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. His work has been featured in numerous art exhibitions, museums, and galleries around the world. Alongside his ceaseless filmmaking, Žilnik is a devoted educator and mentor. Since 1997, he has participated in international workshops for students from across southeastern Europe. Since 2006, he has served as a visiting lecturer at film schools and universities in the USA, Slovenia, and UK.
This Jorgensen Program will take place in the form of an onstage conversation between Žilnik and Russell Valentino, Professor and Chair of the Dept. of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures.
