Karpo Aćimović Godina

Through the conversation with Yugoslav film authors and excerpts from their films, this documentary film tells a story of a film phenomenon and censorship, and its focus is, in fact, a painful epoch of Yugoslav film called “a Black Wave”, which was the most important and artistically strongest period of Yugoslav film industry, created in the sixties and buried in the early seventies by means of ideological and political decisions. The film tells a great “thriller” story of the ideological madness which characterised the totalitarian psychology having left multiple consequences felt up to our very days. It stresses similarities between totalitarian regimes defending their taboos on the example of the persecution of the most important Yugoslav film authors. Those film authors have, however, made world careers and inspired many later authors. The film is the beginning of a debt pay-off to the most significant Yugoslav film authors.

The history of Bosnian cinematography over 75 years of existence.

Druga linija aka The Other Line is a product of many years of research of neo-avant-garde cultural and art scene in Novi Sad, Serbia (late 60s and 70s), which has been marginalized until today. This artistic movement was directly connected not only with important art centers of the former Yugoslavia, but also with existing flows of world art during its brief and productive activities (7e Biennale de Paris, 19th Berlinale). The cultural and artistic emancipation of that time had implied individual freedom of expression and strong reaction to established boundaries. This avant-garde movement had become threat to communist establishment, the authors' work were sabotaged, the films were sealed off, five artists were taken to trial, two were sent in prison. How is it that the retrograde mechanism of shutting down and removing the most creative and representative progressive impulses of our surrounding is still so current to this day?

Documentary focusing on the making of "I Miss Sonia Henie"

A biographical film about director Bahrudin 'Bato' Čengić and his contribution to Bosnian cinematography.

A portrait of the greats of Slovenian and Yugoslav documentary film, from his point of view, and that of his family and colleagues Karpo Aćimović-Godina, Jože Pogačnik and others.

Between 2013 and 2023, Slovenian Cinematheque preserved and digitized 179 short films created on a tiny stretch of land between the Alps and the Adriatic Sea in the period of socialism (1945-1991), but mostly outside the prevailing state production. Today, we belatedly recognize these films as experimental and as an important, innovative part of the Slovenian film heritage, visible again for the first time after decades. The production of Alpe-Adria Underground! has radically accelerated efforts to preserve, digitize and restore this segment of Slovenian cinema.

A sentimental, delightful journey along the former railway route “Porečanka” that connected Trieste and Poreč from 1902 until 1935. Then it was dismantled and the tracks to be used in Mussolini’s war in Abyssinia but they sank in the Mediterranean – an ironic turn of history, an ideal subject for Karpo Godina, the master of tender wit.

One camera in one setting, one attic and eight young directors – the result is a unique Dadaistic collage of seven short sketches. The original task for each filmmaker was to keep each short under three minutes, to set it in one hotel room, and to include the sentence “I miss Sonja Henie." This experimental film was shot over a single night at the international film festival FEST in Beograd in 1971.

Comedy about a group of musicians who are sent to play to villagers and workers to raise morale during a 5 year plan. The trouble is they prefer to play jazz and boogie music to the traditional folk songs, and each time they try their jazz they are reprimanded by the local party secretary.

Los Angeles in 1935. Fritz Lang receives in his hotel apartment the young film amateur Willy, who wants to prepare an interview with him. At a certain moment Lang starts relating how, as an army officer in the First World War, he spent some time in the house of the lawyer Karol Gatnik in a small town in the northeast of Slovenia. Lang makes friends with Gatnik and gets aquainted with all members of his family. When Lang finds out that Gatnik is a passionate film amateur and that he also possesses his own camera, they make a film together. This is probably Lang’s first contact with cinematography. Late at night Lang looks at the photographs in Los Angeles and revives in his spirit the imaginary meeting with his friend Gatnik.

Story about a group of eccentric Dadaist artists in a small Serbian town in the 1920s.

The mysterious, charming Mr. P. F., the protagonist of this full-length documentary film, is a sportsman, inventor, owner of more than 400 patents and a cosmopolitan who knew life in Europe's most glamorous cities. His inquisitiveness and the spirit of cosmopolitanism lured him to Switzerland, where he only just started living. Very quickly he ended up among the European rich elite and they accepted him as one of them. He was a millionaire who was thought to be a billionaire and who also lived like a billionaire.

The mysterious, charming Mr. P. F., the protagonist of this full-length documentary film, is a sportsman, inventor, owner of more than 400 patents and a cosmopolitan who knew life in Europe's most glamorous cities. His inquisitiveness and the spirit of cosmopolitanism lured him to Switzerland, where he only just started living. Very quickly he ended up among the European rich elite and they accepted him as one of them. He was a millionaire who was thought to be a billionaire and who also lived like a billionaire.

On the trail of the partisan to the liberator from the first days of the liberation of Yugoslavia to the meeting with the generation of '68.

On the trail of the partisan to the liberator from the first days of the liberation of Yugoslavia to the meeting with the generation of '68.

Godina was ordered to make a short film glorifying the army, but instead made a film about making love, not war. The censors hacked it up, but he managed to save one complete copy.

Godina was ordered to make a short film glorifying the army, but instead made a film about making love, not war. The censors hacked it up, but he managed to save one complete copy.

Experimental 8mm film by Karpo Godina.

Experimental 8mm film by Karpo Godina.

After film school, Godina’s first professional work as a director was “Picnic on Sunday,” a 1968 black-and-white short without any words that shows how seven different people spend a Sunday. A simple concept, but in Godina’s hands the short is suffused with both sexuality and revolution. - Paste

After film school, Godina’s first professional work as a director was “Picnic on Sunday,” a 1968 black-and-white short without any words that shows how seven different people spend a Sunday. A simple concept, but in Godina’s hands the short is suffused with both sexuality and revolution. - Paste

Documentary focusing on the making of "I Miss Sonia Henie"

Plotless and wordless, beautifully edited shots of young (often naked or semi-naked) people in various positions, illustrating different emotions, actions and situations, underlined by rock music.

Plotless and wordless, beautifully edited shots of young (often naked or semi-naked) people in various positions, illustrating different emotions, actions and situations, underlined by rock music.

The response of the director Karpo Godina and poet Boris A. Novak to the manipulations of the government and the party machinery that bicycles were a means of Nazi and fascist propaganda.

The film follows the stream of consciousness of Ksenija Hribar, a ballet dancer from Ljubljana and a long time member of London Contemporary Dance Company.

A sentimental, delightful journey along the former railway route “Porečanka” that connected Trieste and Poreč from 1902 until 1935. Then it was dismantled and the tracks to be used in Mussolini’s war in Abyssinia but they sank in the Mediterranean – an ironic turn of history, an ideal subject for Karpo Godina, the master of tender wit.

A sentimental, delightful journey along the former railway route “Porečanka” that connected Trieste and Poreč from 1902 until 1935. Then it was dismantled and the tracks to be used in Mussolini’s war in Abyssinia but they sank in the Mediterranean – an ironic turn of history, an ideal subject for Karpo Godina, the master of tender wit.

Experimental 8mm film by Karpo Godina.

The Serbian province of Vojvodina is home to a multi-ethnic population of Serbs, Croats, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Romanians, and Roma. The different groups seem to coexist cheerfully and peacefully, full of respect for each other’s customs, songs and religions. But the filmmaker’s ironical gaze discovers cracks in a facade that has long been less harmonious than it seems…

The Serbian province of Vojvodina is home to a multi-ethnic population of Serbs, Croats, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Romanians, and Roma. The different groups seem to coexist cheerfully and peacefully, full of respect for each other’s customs, songs and religions. But the filmmaker’s ironical gaze discovers cracks in a facade that has long been less harmonious than it seems…