CBA TRIESTE The Cinematic Battle for the Adriatic: Films, Frontiers, and the Trieste Crisis
The project CBA TRIESTE, coordinated by Dr. Dunja Jelenković, researcher at Ca' Foscari University in Venice, analyses cinematic practices related to the Trieste Crisis (1945-1954), the diplomatic struggle over the Italo-Yugoslav borderlands at the outset of the Cold War. Both countries produced several films about these events, often utilizing the same footage – Yugoslav partisans in Trieste, Italians leaving the region, political protests – but framing them in conflicting ways: as occupation/liberation, migration/exodus, anticommunist/antifascist protests. As the conflict coincided with the establishment of film festivals, the festival circuit became an arena in which the struggle for cultural hegemony took place. Taking festivals as Lieux de mémoire, CBA TRIESTE explores how the cinematic representation of the struggle for this territory has been employed to construct politically suitable cultural memories related to the conflict’s national and ideological concerns.
The struggle for the Northern Adriatic remains one of the most controversial issues in contemporary Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia. This is due to the violence of the period, including accusations of war crimes committed by both sides, and Italian emigration from the areas that became part of socialist Yugoslavia. Hence, in 2004 the Italian government established Giorno del Ricordo to commemorate what it terms the “Italian tragedy” in the territories that it lost to Yugoslavia. This has fuelled the rediscovery of this once-marginalised topic and inspired the restoration of old and production of new films on this subject. As such, any political analysis of this disputed past, is indisputably a political analysis of the present.
LINK TO THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE PROJECT
Dr. Dunja Jelenković is a historian, a specialist in Yugoslav documentary film and the cultural history of the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Her research focuses on Yugoslav film festivals and the relationship between image, history and memory. She is currently a researcher at the Ca' Foscari University in Venice with her postdoctoral project CBA TRIESTE - Cinematic Battle for the Adriatic: Films, Frontiers and the Trieste Crisis.
Announcements/
Filmska umetnost kot orodje preseganja meja
09. 04. 2025Nekatere meje so vidne, druge nevidne. Nekatere ločujejo, druge združujejo. Obmejna regija med Slovenijo in Italijo je bila stoletja prizorišče prepletanja kultur, zgodovinskih preobratov in človeških usod. Lahko zgodovino pogledamo skozi film in jo razumemo skozi umetnost? Retrospektiva Oriente Vzhod / Occidente Zahod – Meja skozi film in zgodovino, ki jo Kinoateje organizira v sodelovanju s številnimi partnerji in je del uradnega programa Evropske prestolnice kulture GO! 2025 ponuja prav to – potovanje skozi filmske podobe, ki raziskujejo življenje na robu in središču Evrope hkrati.
Popotnica retrospektivi: Stojan Pelko in Vlado Škafar
09. 04. 2025Zdaj, ko je prestolnično leto že v polnem teku, je mogoče nekoliko lažje primerjati posamezne discipline oziroma sklope programov. Upam si reči, da je Filmsko mesto, kakor smo poimenovali cel sklop filmsko-kinematografsko-avdio-vizualno-animiranih projektov eden tistih, ki dobesedno hkrati producira rezultate doma in na tujem – pri čemer doma pomeni ne le v goriškem somestju in po Sloveniji, ampak po celi Evropi.
Transcending Borders Through Film – Andrej Šprah
09. 04. 2025Film clubs play a crucial role in shaping film practices, cultures, and policies, as they serve as spaces for intense discussions where new ideas emerge. These clubs often evolve into institutions, although institutionalization is not always necessary.