The eighth Belgrade International Film Festival for and by people with disabilities - Bosifest is officially opened.

October 10 2017

The eighth Bosifest was officially opened last night at the Belgrade Sava Center’s "Amphitheatre". Director of the Festival, Darko Ivić, assistant to the Minister of Culture and Information Ivana Dedić, acting assistant to the Minister of Labor, Empoyment, Veteran and Social Policy - Sector for protection of people with disabilities - Biljana Barošević, representative of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological development Gordana Cvetković and a member of the City Council of Belgrade Dragomir Petronijević addressed a numerous and mostly young audience.

Darko Ivić said that in keeping with the slogan "Start a change", the Festival has already started to implement it by moving from the Belgrade Youth Center to the Sava Center. He also expressed a desire to move into the large hall in two to three years.

"Each year, we are adding something new to our program. This time, that step further will be a conference "Bosifest 2017 - Start a change", with lectures given by professionals and interaction with university and highschool students. This is also the aim of the Festival - sensitizing young people to get involved in recognizing problems of people with disabilities and possibly giving some input", said Ivić.

"The second main goal, that we have already fulfilled and are continuing to develop is creating a bond between fim authors and organizations for people with disabilities, as well as individuals, in order to help them realize that film is a serious art and only with professionals we will be able to create good documentary films on topics that concern us", emphasized Ivić.

Director expressed great pleasure at the support of competent institutions, he thanked the authors from Poland, Georgia, France and the Netherlands for coming, as well as the selector Goran Radovanović and memebers of the jury, Anica Dobra, Radoslav Zelenović and Predrag Antonijević.

As for the Festival program, he pointed out the World Preview of the Israeli film "My hero brother".

Ivana Dedić estimated that Bosifest is "becoming a traditional manifestation that each time gathers a wider circle of filmmakers and admirers of film art".

"This festival is proof that artistic affirmation is a confirmation of the activity and creativity of people with disabilities.At the same time, it is an indicator of the quality of film production in our country and the world. Bosifest offers an immeasurable contribution to the inclusion of people with disabilities in the creative reality of our culture", she said.

Biljana Barošević said that the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy has different projects for including people with disabilities in the community life.

"Bosifest is one of the positive examples of inclusion. We will do a lot to support these and similar projects in order to affirm people with disabilities in all spheres of our society", she said, adding that the film plays an important role as it can strengthen the awareness of problems of people with disabilities.

Gordana Cvetković reminded that every child's right to education with their peers was legally regulated in 2009.

She said, "Inclusive education has become the right. We have started a change and now it is up to us to maintain it. I am very glad to see so many young people in the audience. We will have much less work if young people joined together in working with their peers, fighting against fears, opposition and prejudice".

Dragomir Petronijević thanked Darko Ivić for organizing this festival for the eighth year now which, among other things, promotes Belgrade. He said, "Many people around the world heard about our city thanks to Bosifest itself. On the other hand, through this Festival's program, young viewers were able to learn something about life and people from other countries".

Petronijević emphasized that while working at the Youth Office he often encountered attitudes like, 'how will I do that?', 'I cannot do it' and similar. "This is why I am thrilled by Darko Ivić's energy. He has shown that whoever wants to do something - they will find a way. When you believe in your project, when you work on your knowledge and skills - there are no limits", said Petronijević.

The opening ceremony of the 8th Bosifest was lead by the actor Uroš Jovčić, along with translations to sign language and English. Jovčić said that over 100 films applied for the Festival from Serbia, Europe, Amerika, Australia and Afrika, out of which 18 were chosen for the competitive and non-competitive part of the program.

In his previous conversation with the journalists, Darko Ivić explained that they went for a fewer number of films than previous years, in order to be able to show some longer film over the three days of Festival. The main criterion, besides the topic, was certainly a high quality of chosen films, emphasized Ivić.

Immediately after the opening ceremony, the fenomenal feature-length documentary "Normal Autistic Film" was shown, in which the Czech documentarist challenges us once and for all to stop perceiving autism as a medical diagnosis and try to understand it as a fascinating way of thinking that is often too difficult to decipher.

During Bosifest, from October 10-12, the audience will be able to see 18 films chosen by the selector Gorana Radovanović, 10 in the competitive and 8 in the non-competitive part of the program. All films had their premieres in Serbia at this time, and on the first day of the Festival, at 8 p.m., there was a World Preview of the excellent Israeli documentary "My hero brother" (Directors:Yonatan Nir and Enosh Cassel) which follows a group of young people with Down syndrome on a joureny through the Indian Himalayas, accompanied by their brothers and sisters. This film will be shown in the non-competitive part of the program.

Appart from the "Normal Autistic Film", in the competitive part of the program we will also be able to see a documentary "50 x Rio" (Author: Francesco Mansuti, 36:14 min) which talks about an adventure of a very special guy, Alex Zanardi, and of his training and preparations for the Paraolymic games in Rio de Janeiro. In his fifties, Alex is physically more capable than much younger athletes. Along the way, the film captures amazing footage from training scenes of the Italian Paraolympic national team, Alex's everyday life, to the special moments when he meets and works with key people who are helping him develop the skill of riding his handcycle. Then there is the film "88MhZ" (Author: Yana Titova, 39 min) about the blind theater and radio journalist, Jordan Georgiev from Bulgaria, who is hosting the cultural program entitled "No Masks", as well as the excellent short documentary called "Altrove" (Authors: Cesare Cicardini, Mauro Melgrati, 18 min) that speaks of a freeing and intimate journey of a twenty-year-old young man with a Down syndrome, whose ambition is to find his place in this world.

You will certainly enjoy the Russian film "They went dancing" (Author: Maryam Makhieva, 20 min) - a documentary about people who are connected by sport dancing in wheelchairs.

The twelve-year-old Laura will be our guide through her life with deaf parents in the film "Two worlds", and nine-year-old Luka will share with us his dream about dancing on stage in the film "Listen to the silence", because he feels that is the only way he can take his place in this world. The only world known to him is the public school for deaf children which he attends and lives in...

Within the competitive program, other documentaries that will be shown are "In another world", about the woman who receives the news that she is pregnant and is carrying a baby with a Down syndrome; "Arise and walk" - a unique documentary in which Matthieu Firmin, popular online magazine Spicee's editor-in-chief, in a funny and interesting way talks about his battle with paraplegia and "Daniel", film about a boy who spends his holiday in a camp organized for persons with Down syndrome.

This year's Bosifest members of the jury are: Predrag Gaga Antonijević, our renown director, Radoslav Zelenović, director of the European Film Festival Palić and a long-standing director of the Yugoslav Film Archive and Anica Dobra, one of our most significant actresses. The jury will give out following awards: Grand Prix for the best film, the award for the best director, the award for the best-case scenario, as well as special recognitions.

In addition to the aforementioned exclusive World Preview of the film "My hero brother", films that will be shown in the non-competitive part of the program are "Andre The Anti-Giant" - a remarkable journey of a three-foot tall actor, comedian and disability advocate Andre H. Arruda; Russian short documentary "Champion and Ballet Dancer", Belgian film "The kangaroo complex", Indian "I'm Jeeja" - a first person narrative of Jeeja Ghosh, an effective and responsible leader and disability rights activist living with cerebral palsy.

This year, Festival's accompanying program is the conference "Start a change", which will take place on the second and third day of the Festival, before the showing of the films (12a.m. - 3.30p.m.). At the Conference, experts will be giving interactive lectures on topics:

  • Media reports on people with disabilities;
  • The influence of media - film on creating attitudes towards people with disabilities;
  • Application and importance of media in the inclusive education;
  • Culture, tolerance, diversity.

You can find a detailed program schedule and more information about the films in the the Festival catalogue, which is available for download on the following link - Bosifest - catalogue

All film screenings will be held at the Sava Center's "Amphitheatre". The accompanying program will be held at the "Amphitheatre" and the VIP room.

Bosifest is a unique film festival in our country, but also in the world context, since the whole program is devoted to the life of people with disabilities, and the films shown are relevant and outstanding achievments of a documentary genre.

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