Sarajevo Film Festival: Documentary Competition with Rada Šešić

[August 12, 2021] Our first episode of a series covering the 27th Sarajevo Film Festival. We are joined by Rada Šešić, who leads the selection of films in the Documentary Competition. We discuss her work as a filmmaker, critic, mentor, and film programmer. We also talk about the origins of the Sarajevo Film Festival and how it is rooted in cultural protest, review some of the films included in this year’s Documentary Competition including LOOKING FOR HORSES by Stefan Pavlović, LANDSCAPES OF RESISTANCE by Marta Popivoda, WHEN WE WERE THEM by Danis Tanović and Damir Šagolj, and the Georgian documentary film, SUNNY by Keti Machavariani.

We wrap up the discussion with three of Rada’s all-time favorite films which include Dziga Vertov’s MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA, VIVAN LAS ANTIPODES by Victor Kossakovsy, and THE THREE ROOMS OF MELANCHOLIA by Finnish film director Pirjo Honkasalo.

We hope you enjoy this conversation and have the chance to review these films. We will be on the ground, in Sarajevo, for the next few days covering the festival - so stay tuned for more conversations.

Reference Links:  Sarajevo Film Festival

Rada Šešić

Rada Sesič was born in former Yugoslavia and currently lives in The Netherlands. Sesič is specialized in South Asian and Eastern European cinema. She is associated with IDFA, IFFR and NIF (Dutch Institute for film education) as well as Sarajevo Film Festival and Kerala Film Festival. She teaches and gives workshops worldwide and has directed four award-winning shorts and documentaries that were screened at several festivals and also presented and archived at MoMA, New York. Visit her website here.