Mapping cinematography on the island of Korčula

In researching the history of contemporaneity of Korčula cinematography mapping plays an important role because of the strength and range of inclusiveness of the wider population in contemporary culture and art. Project is interdisciplinary and research activities are aimed at mapping the activities connected to cinematography on the island of Korčula mainly in the 20th century. Cinematography on the island of Korčula has not yet been systematically and comprehensively treated, there were only a few articles published on the particular topics on film about Žrnovo, Vela Luka and Blato.

The first phase of the project, now published, includes exploring the history of cinema theatres and cinema screenings on the island i.e. mapping all locations where permanent or temporary cinema functioned, as well an insight into the program. In Vela Luka there was already in 1909 (or 1911) the first cinema opened on the island, named after Nikola Tesla, and at the same time it was the fifth cinema opened in entire county of Dalmatia. In the 1930's there were four cinemas active on the island, in the 1950's as many as ten, while today we only have one. Through field research the  interviews were conducted with fifty witnesses of the time and the place whose memories represent the most valuable source for reconstruction of the history of cinematography on the island of Korčula. Besides the factography about the cinemas, screenings and films screened, the presented research so far contains a good insight into the attitude of the population towards the cinema and film art throughout the  20th century. With audio testimony of informants also the photographic documentation was collected. Since the research was based on oral history solely, we can pose the question of reliability. For this reason, what we have found so far should be seen as the beginning of the research, and the results presented as an open form which could be updated at any time and by anybody who has knowledge or information on the subject.

Please feel free to contact us via email or social networks with your comments, observations,  photo and/or video attachments.

There were footages made about the island, and it has been filmed on the island. The project is open for the following phases: mapping of all movies related to the island of Korčula, and all cinema activities on the island in the 20th century.

It is not widely known, but the island of Korčula has always been a place of film experiments. Mihovil Pansini filmed on the island's locations a series of experimental films in the 1950's and 1960's, called anti-movies (according to already existing anti-art), which were promoted category at the international GEFF festival in Zagreb (1963 - 1970), where Pansini was one of the founders. Since its establishment in 2006 the association grey) (area successively has been showing the contemporary production of video art, and as a part of the gallery program in 2011 we showed the films Convicted (1954), Ships do not Enter the Harbour (1955) and Siesta (1958) by Mihovil Pansini, while the movie by the same author called Zahod (Latrine) was projected at the location where it was recorded in the town of Korčula in 1963. These were the first, and so far the only presentations of Pansini's filmography in his  hometown. The third International Meeting of Artists in Vela Luka in 1972 was carried out under the title 'The problem of creation of new scene forms by integrating citizenry, film, television, music and art creators', which is when the professional TV crew from Cologne with producer Jose Conte Baquero made a participatory film together with the local population to which the German team lent a series of 8mm film cameras, which subsequently prompted the development of amateur film in Vela Luka. Experiments continue today as well, the movie Trapula by Ivan Ramljak and Marko Škobalj was recorded in 2013 on the island locations with local actors. Movie collective Bura movie manifestively makes movies exclusively on the island, and with the help of  amateur low-tech devices (smart phone or a cheap photo cameras) it entertained the people in the open-air cinema in Korčula with its trash aesthetics  during the premiere of Blitva (Swiss chard) Blues in 2014.

Project Mapping cinematography on the island of Korcula will gradually develop during next few years, and if necessary, will be complemented.

We would like to remind once again on the call for cooperation in all aspects of this project, and we thank the previous participants, without whom this work, the kind of open and collective writing of history, would not have been possible.

Project Manager, research, text, photography, audio files: Ivan Ramljak, grey) (area
Introductory text: Darko Fritz, grey) (area
 

the history of cinema theatres and cinema screenings on the island of Korčuča >>

filmography of the island of Korčula >>