For another year, the coordinator of the project from the Croatian Heritage Foundation was Nives Antoljak. She did not hide the pleasure of working with young people, nor did Sanja Pejić, the director of the Center for Culture, a partner of that project. Antoljak and Pejić presented the diplomas to the participants of the workshop after the screening of the film in the open space of the summer cinema.
At the end of August, the Croatian Heritage Foundation, together with its partner – the Cultural Center in Orašje, organized a five-day film workshop for young people led by the director Ivan Mokrović.
Maja Šebelić from Pula, Luka Kuzmanović from Poland, Mihaella Bardheci, Vid Đorđo and Filip Štimac from Bjelovar, Domagoj, Ana and Vlatka Stojak from Novi Travnik, Sara Horvat from Zagreb, Dragana Golić from Subotica and Nina Ivanović from Orašja are young talented actors which the audience of the Croatian Film Days summer cinema Ivo Gregurević rewarded on August 31 with thunderous applause for their first film performance. Young filmmakers took part in the work “Creating a film” and ultimately created a film. We remind you that the young filmmakers called their first film work “Bobby at 3 in the morning”, the second was called “Hotel Romantique”, and this time the title of their debut was “The Sufferings of Professor Machenhauer”.
Young people had the opportunity to work on a film set with professional director Ivan Mokrović. In just five days of socializing and learning with film lovers, Mokrović introduced them to the process of film creation, editing, production and distribution. The film workshop was actually designed as an accompanying content of the film festival and has already produced three short films.
For another year, the coordinator of the project from the Croatian Heritage Foundation was Nives Antoljak. She did not hide the pleasure of working with young people, nor did Sanja Pejić, the director of the Center for Culture, a partner of that project. Antoljak and Pejić presented the diplomas to the participants of the workshop after the screening of the film in the open space of the summer cinema.
– We gather Croats from different parts of the world, introduce them to Croatian cinematography and teach them the basics of filmmaking. All this, along with the already known hospitality of Posavina, is related to getting to know the cultural and natural sights of this region and the realization of future joint projects, Antoljak stressed.
A student from Pula, Maja Šebelić, says she was delighted with a new interesting experience. Although she enrolled in molecular biology, according to Mokrović, she played her role very well, after all, as did the whole team.
– We had a wonderful time here in Orašje, we learned a lot in Mala Pula. I heard a lot about Ivo, I grew up with his films that I watched at the Pula Festival, so that was an additional inspiration for me to come here, said Maja.
Luka Kuzmanović from Velika Gorica, who has been living in Poland for six years, is also satisfied with this year’s workshop.
– A great project and a great team. We did improvisations and based on them we got a script that we turned into an interesting film. Also, hanging out with everyone was great, says Kuzmanović.
Director Mokrović believes that young filmmakers have confirmed how much talent they really have during their two years of work in Orašje. According to director Mokrović, youthful creativity came to full expression through the workshop.
– I am very satisfied with this year’s work because the participants worked perhaps even harder than ever before. They really did everything by themselves; they came up with their text, their character, of course with my help, but in the whole process they had the initiative, which is very important. They did dialogue scenes according to my instructions, and it was not difficult for them to work for five or six hours a day. They went through the entire editing and production process and I can only praise them and be proud of their involvement, Mokrović points out.
New addition in this year’s film is the final scene in honor of Ivo Gregurević and his film achievements.
– Ivo is an inspiration to young people. I somehow decided that all future films should end with a scene involving Ivo because everything started from him, and I think it would be good if our film ended with him as well, concludes Mokrović.
Text and photo: Nada Koturić