The socialist Yugoslav paradox: Documentary cinema exhibition opportunities and the meaning of ‘Dissent’

Abstract

This article will examine the position of critical cinema in socialist Yugoslavia by analysing the archives of the only documentary festival in the country, the Yugoslav Documentary and Short Film Festival in Belgrade (founded in 1954). It will compare the festival’s most prosperous years, when a series of internationally acclaimed Black Wave films were screened (late 60 s/early 70 s), and its final socialist phase, when a series of ‘patriotic’ films, mostly seen as uninteresting by international programmers, were shown (late 80 s/early 90 s). Analysing the ideological change in the festival’s programming, the article will show how Yugoslav documentary moved from a critique within a socialist perspective in the 60 s to the promotion of a predominantly anti-socialist and nationalist perspective in the 80 s. In doing so, it will demonstrate that although often regarded as ‘the’ dissident cinema of Yugoslavia, the Black Wave was in its essence in dialectical dialog with the socialist state, unlike the critical films of the late 80 s and early 90 s, which were arguing for regime change in favour of a nation-state. The article will shed light on the paradoxes of Yugoslav censorship and film exhibition opportunities, in the specific context of the only European country that was ruled by a communist government but that was outside of the Eastern Bloc.