Documentary Perspectives from Kosovo and the Balkans
Sunday, January 28, 2007, 8:00 pm, $6
The series of wars in the Balkans that marked the violent breakup of Yugoslavia held international attention for a while. No longer in the limelight of spectacular tragedies, what can be learned from this region about the lasting challenges of social reconstruction? What can be learned from the oversights of international projects for “peace building?”
*Disposable Heroes* visits seven war veterans of the Balkans who share their common experiences of battle, their firsthand confrontations with the madness of war, and their struggles as veterans to rebuild a normal existence. Since the end of the conflict in 1999, Kosovo has existed ambiguously as a Politically Undefined Province, governed by the United Nations and policed by NATO forces.
The film *Whose Security? * looks at how these international efforts to build security and peace largely overlook the day-to-day issues that face Kosovar women. Such considerations are particularly important at this present time as Kosovo’s future status is being negotiated.
*Kosovo Son-in-Law,* a comedic TV sketch aired weekly on Kosovar public television, is about an American immigrant in Kosovo who attempts to solve all of Kosovo’s problems to gain the acceptance of his Kosovar father-in-law.Several sketches reveal the naivety of this foreign peace-making perspective, as our hero takes on the challenges of reconciliation and the question of Kosovo’s independence.
The final film of the screening, *Not Drawn to Scale * takes us to the battlegrounds of Iraq. Appropriating images filmed by American soldiers in Iraq that have been uploaded onto the internet as blogs, this film inquires into the politics of representation as well as its limitations.
Crossing Bridges Productions is a Kosovo based film and TV production studio focused on creating films which address the most pressing social issues in Kosovar and Balkan society. Films tackling issues of the politics of post-war nation building, particularly those pertaining to women, have recently been screened at international film festivals in Berlin, New York, Prague, and Sarajevo.