About the Vožd

This year marks the centennial anniversary of the first Serbian feature film, Life and Deeds of the Immortal Vožd Karađorđe (the leader of the Serbs during the First Serbian Uprising), directed by Uncle Ilija Stanojević and shot by the cameraman Louis de Berry.

By Radoslav Zelenović
Photo by Courtesy of Yugoslav Film Archive

Karađorđe is the first feature film ever made in the Balkans. It was discovered in 2003, in the Film Archives in Vienna, almost eighty years after its screening. For the occasion of celebrating the centennial anniversary of the first Serbian feature film, the Yugoslav Film Archive put forward a proposal, which was accepted by the Ministry of Culture, to proclaim the year 2011 as the Year of the Movie.

Starting from October, a number of events will take place to mark the date important both for the cinematography and for the culture of the region. The book Uncle Ilija Stanojević – The Greatest Story of the Old Belgrade, written by Velibor Berka Savić, has already been published; the digital restoration of the Karađorđe film copy is underway, aimed at overcoming all technical problems caused by conditions in which the film was shot and saved for years. The film will be recorded on 35 mm film-tape and there will be also a DVD version - one DVD containing the film, and the other - all relevant information and a short video recorded in Vienna at the time when the film was found.

In honor of the film producer, Svetozar Botorić, the first Serbian film producer, a collection of 3 DVDs would be released including other Serbian feature films such as Ulrich Celjski and Vladislav Hunjadi and documentary films shot between 1911 and 1914. For the occasion of the anniversary, Srbijamarka plans to issue honorary stamps featuring scenes from the film Karađorđe.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society, the most prominent filmmakers would be invited to make a list of top 100 Serbian feature films, to be screened during the jubilee. Production of the restored copies will be subsidized within the following several years, in order to make such films available to our cultural public. The Uncle Ilija Award will be officially established and presented each year to the most prominent figures of our cinematography. A proposal would be made to the Belgrade City Council to name some of Belgrade streets after the Serbian film pioneers Čiča Ilija Stanojević, Svetozar Botorić, Milorad Petrović, etc.

During the upcoming Nitrate Film Festival, a special program will be dedicated to the Serbian films in the Yugoslav Film Archive saved at flammable tapes. In addition, the preparation of several exhibitions is underway all over Serbia that would be open in October. The negotiations have been also initiated with the Municipality of Osečina on setting up a monument of Uncle Ilija Stanojević in this town.

We are an old institution but not the old-fashioned one. We are going to produce an educative and entertainment computer game Quest for Karađorđe, thus enabling all the interested to become acquainted with Serbian films and the archival administration. In this way, the Yugoslav Film Archive wishes to accomplish its educative and promotional function, using the influential and popular 21^th century medium, which is more and more winning over majority of former cinema and fi lm art devotees (potentially also Film Archive devotees).

The announced programmes will take place in the new building of the Yugoslav Film Archive at 1 Uzun Mirkova Street. By opening this building for the public, the Yugoslav Film Archive would round up its long-lasting endeavors to save and make available a huge world cultural heritage that it has cherished for years.