MOCA SKOPJE SUMMERTIME CINEMA – Urban Landscapes of the 1960s in film

А collaboration between the MoCA Skopje and the Cinematheque 
Curated by Sofia Grigoriadou
Free entrance

This selection of short films reflects the transformations taking place in the urban landscape of Skopje in the 1960s through the lens and narratives of the featured filmmakers and writers. More broadly, it reflects the modernist narrative embedded in Yugoslav cities. Ιn one of the films, shot a few months before the 1963 earthquake, we can still catch a glimpse of the Officers’ Hall as we follow a dance party on a nearby terrace. Ιn the films made in the following years, the city is already under reconstruction: cranes and building sites have become part of everyday life and children’s games. High-rise residential blocks, glass facades, other elements of urban architecture, vehicles and bus doors are not mere witnesses of the action, but also participants in it and commentators on the characters’ attitudes or the situations they find themselves in. This selection suggests that although the city is not necessarily the main focus of the films, in each of them the urban landscape is not reduced to a backdrop for the action, but is subtly involved in the stories.
While the films sometimes convey a gaze that would be challenged today, they remain current in their original narrative and cinematography, as well as in their openness to experimentation. They preserve a precious memory of a time when the city looked and felt different, as they vividly convey the ways in which the ever-changing urban landscapes act upon passers-by and residents. 

Films:

The Troubles of the Deceased K. K. (Zdravko Velimirović), 1963, 15 min.
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An Elevator Up and Down  (Dušan Naumovski), 1967, 12 min.
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A path (Ljubisha Georgievski), 1967, 07 min.
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A Monument (Veljo Ličenovski), 1967, 09 min.
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The Man in Black (Branko Stavrev), 1970, 10 min.
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