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 »  Home  »  Music  »  Branko Istvancic Croatian filmmaker recipient of the Liliane Stewart Award for Design Arts in Montreal Canada
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 »  Home  »  Awards  »  Branko Istvancic Croatian filmmaker recipient of the Liliane Stewart Award for Design Arts in Montreal Canada
Branko Istvancic Croatian filmmaker recipient of the Liliane Stewart Award for Design Arts in Montreal Canada
By Nenad N. Bach and Darko Žubrinić | Published  04/1/2014 | Music , Croatian Language , People , Education , Culture And Arts , Croatian Life Stories , Awards | Unrated
A winner at the The International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) in Montreal, Canada

"Mi smo Bunjevke Hrvatice a zovu nas slamarke!" / "We are all Croats and are called straw-girls!" from Branko Istvančić.



2014 LILIANE STEWART PRIZE FOR THE DESIGN ARTS  AWARDED TO FILM BY BRANKO IŠTVANČIĆ


Branko Ištvančić, distinguished Croatian cameraman and producer

Established in 2011, the Liliane Stewart Prize recognizes the best documentary film in the design arts and is presented annually on the occasion of the International Festival of Films on Arts (FIFA) in Montreal. On March 30, 2014, the Stewart Prize was awarded to the Croatian film From Grain to Painting, directed by Branko Ištvančić. The documentary, set in the region of Ištvančić’s childhood home of Tavankut, focuses on a marginalized minority of Croatian artists forgotten by their country. The “straw girls” are anonymous Croatian artists of Bunjevci ethnicity. They found straw to the “green” medium of choice for creating paintings, sculptures and applied-art objects as an antidote to their difficult life on the vast Pannonian plain. With commentary by artists Ana Milodanović and Jozefa Skenderović, art historian Bela Duranci, priest Andrija Kopilović and writer Naco Zelić, the film encourages the revival of an endangered art form.



Branko Ištvančić was born in Subotica, and made his first documentary films at the age of fifteen. He studied film and television direction at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, Croatia, graduating in 1999. His documentary films have garnered numerous awards, within Croatia and internationally, including the Grand Prix at the Croatian Short and Documentary Film Festival, The "Oktavijan" award for best documentary and the Golden Oil-lamp award. His student short fiction Saying Goodbye was included in the New Direction programme of The First Film Foundation in London, a selection of six outstanding films by promising European directors. His other films include Wellman, The Cormorant Scarecrow, and the children’s film The Ghost in the Swamp. He is a member of the Croatian Film Director’s Guild

ABOUT FIFA

The International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) is a nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion and presentation of the world’s finest productions on art and media art. An eleven-day competitive festival, it is the most important annual event of its kind in the world. FIFA has become a focal point for artists and professionals from the art and film communities, as well as for art and cinema enthusiasts. Since it was established in 1981, 5000 films from 71 countries have been presented to audiences that continue to grow every year.

“We are delighted to have this affiliation with the Stewart Program for Modern Design, which helps to encourage filmmakers in focusing on designers and makes their work better known worldwide”, said Mr. René Rozon, director and founder of the FIFA.www.artfifa.com

ABOUT THE STEWART PROGRAM

The Stewart Program for Modern Design inaugurated the Liliane Stewart Prize as a means of bringing attention to the design arts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. “The Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection of over 5,000 objects constitutes one of the most important collections of modern design in the world. It has everything from works by the most significant designers synonymous with modernism to works by lesser known designers, that altogether form an important resource on the history of twentieth-century design,” says Paul Makovsky, Editorial Director of Metropolis magazine. Research and documentation of designs and designers have always been a primary interest of Liliane Stewart, and documentary films provide one of the most important—and most exciting—means of presenting the ideas and work of designers. The 2011 award honoured Bauhaus—Model and Myth (Germany), directed by Niels Bolbrinker and Kerstin Stutterheim. In 2012, the prize was presented at the 30th FIFA award ceremony to Colouring Light: Brian Clarke—An Artist Apart by Mark Kidel of Great Britain. In 2013 the prize went to Suzanne Raes of The Netherlands for The Successor of Kakiemon.

PRESS CONTACT
Angéline Dazé
514-284-0723 x237
adaze@msfoundation.org


Od zrna do slike / From Grain to Painting trailer from Branko Istvančić.


 
Liliane Stewart Award for Design Arts
Sponsored by the MacDonald Stewart Foundation
FROM GRAIN TO PAINTING
Branko Istvančić

Branko Ištvančić's documentary film "Od zrna do slike" (From Grain to Painting) has been shown on 22nd March 2014, in the Cinema of the Museum McCord - Théâtre J. Armand Bombardier in Montreal (McCord Museum, 690 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal), Canada.

From altogether 266 films that arrived from 32, the film of Mr. Ištvančić, distinguished Croatian filmmaker, has been selected among 38 films for the main program. And not only this, "From Grain to Painting" won the prestigious Liliane Stewart Award for Design Arts. Congratulations to Mr. Branko Ištvančić!

The International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) in Montreal, Canada, has a long tradition of 31 years.

The same film has already obtained several international recognitions, among them:

  • Gold Camera award for best documentary Los Angeles USA 2013
  • Grand Prix International Ethnographic Film Festival Romania 2013


 
The Croatian minority in Serbia in the last years absolutely experienced the fact that culture depends on politics. From one side, from the aspect of the state, Croats in Vojvodina are good for obligations like paying Serbian taxes or for recruitment in the Serbian army, but not desirable when mentioning it as a new minority after ex Yugoslavia because of special rights. From the other hand, in the Croatian community, the culture strongly reflects the opposition of two sides: the Croatian political elite, and the Catholic Church. Luckily, the concept of culture includes also things like inspiration, creativity, imagination, which can also bring some valuable fruits. It will be document about wonderful Croatian minority as well as people who are ignored and marginalized in Serbia today and forgotten by their Croatian homeland in the other hand.

The aim of this creative documentary film is attempt to make an eternal memory about female straw artisans Croats called "Bunjevci", that have now become a minority nation in Serbia (Vojvodina), whereby, this is not only a tribute to this special art skill but also our way to inspire people to renew this skill and thereby preserve this cultural heritage which is gradually but surely disappearing. Documentary film with its title: "From Grain to Painting" is the story about the straw knitters, straw artisans, which attract attention in their homeland as well as in the rest of the world by making pictures in straw technique. By using these simple, light, and fragile material-straws, these women aim to express their version of great big world around them, and also to embellish their hardworking life build-up from: fields, sun, dust, constantly bended beck's and sweat; the life of black soil that means everything to them.

They are portraying their everyday life by always adding their personal poetic touch. They are working with the patience of the filigree, using fragile tawny material and producing unexpected feelings and effects. Female and male haymakers called would be haymaking the infinite, fertile, fields of golden wheat, thereby securing the future for the following period of time. While they were still on fields, they would start entwining grain coronal and other ornaments made of straw, which would than, be brought to the host in his home "salas" after the harvesting is done. Some girls would start making the straw crowns and rings while still on the field. In the gentle, but sometimes also rough hands of the bread-knitter, the wheat would become handmade ornament.

With the ability to shape-up and entwine the thin yellow fibres, those hands would produce various extraordinary handicrafts such as: paintings made of straws, relief's, various landscapes, flowers, functional bowls (dishes), greeting cards and postcards. About the importance and value of this skill testifies the fact that one of the crowns (tiaras) made of straw, was given as a present to Pope Paul the VIth, and is exhibited in the museum in Vatican among other golden tiaras (crowns). Straw production path is not easy: before the harvest artists have to collect the nicest straw stalks, cut, wash, iron and paste them on the background. Every stalk has to be cut by half, watered and ironed. After the lot of work and treatment we get the straw collage, which gets cut into the pieces and than pasted on the background. Piece by piece as the imagination of the creator wants it, a new form sprinkles out - A painting made out of straw.

Source www.istvancic.com



A detail from Branko Ištvančić's film "From Grain to Painting", showing a magnificent work of art by Croatian straw-women,
donated by Mrs Kata Rogić to the Pope Paul the VIth in 1964, and kept in Italy.

 
"Mi smo Bunjevke Hrvatice a zovu nas slamarke!" / "We are all Croats and are called straw-girls!"
from Branko Istvancic


"Mi smo Bunjevke Hrvatice a zovu nas slamarke!" ovo dokumentarističko svjedočenje odzvanja u ušima još od davne 1971. godine.

Ivo Škrabalo, rodom Somborac, redatelj i scenarist, 1971. godine snimio je s Nikolom Tanhoferom dokumentarni film "Slamarke divojke" (produkcija FAS - Filmski autorski studio). Prikazan je iste godine u Beogradu (Festival kratkog i dokumentarnog filma) i Zagrebu a 1971. godine u Tavankutu prigodom proslave Dvadeset pete obljetnice rada i postojanja HKPD-a "Matija Gubec". U filmu slamarke govore čistom ikavicom o sebi, radu sa slamom i svom životnom putu. Ovaj se film i dalje prikazuje u povodu proslava i objetnica. Titlovan je na engleskom te prikazan u Londonu. Javni rad slamarki je zastao 1972. godine kad su političkom čistkom uklonjeni iz javnog života čelnici Likovne sekcije HKPD-a "Matija Gubec" iz Tavankuta.

U Slamarkama divojkama veoma je naglašena informativnost i dokumentaristička težnja k autentičnosti. Izbor odsječaka iz stvarnosti, komentar i kretanje kamere, sve je usmjereno k što potpunijem, točnijem i jasnijem obavještavanju o zanimljivoj pojavi. Ipak Slamarke divojke nadilaze izvještaj i reportažu, lišene su suhoparnosti hladnoga faktografskog predstavljanja. Tema je interesantna za nastavu likovne kulture, ali po svom izrazu i sadržajnoj slojevitosti filma zaslužuje da se koristi i za nastavu filmske umjetnosti.

Izvor vimeo.com


 
Film o slamarkama i njihovoj umjetnosti 'slika od slame' koja polako pada u zaborav. Hrvatske umjetnice na sjeveru Vojvodine, tzv. "slamarke" slamarske umjetnice, nešto su poput zaboravljena čuda. Pletući slamu na lijep i poetski način opisuju svoj teški usamljenički život na malenom imanju s kućom usred beskrajne, zlatne Panonske ravnice s nekoliko stabala i neizostavnim bunarom (salaš). Vrlo česti motivi malene su katoličke crkve i kršćanski simboli ali i veliki broj motiva iz svakidašnjeg života. Na međunarodnoj izložbi naivne umjetnosti u Moskvi 1976. godine Ana Milodanović osvojila je zlatnu medalju za svoj rad od pletene slame, a Kata Rogić imala je izuzetnu čast darovati svoj rad papi Pavlu VI. u Vatikanu 1964. godine.

Naive female artists called straw-girls Croats in the north of today's Vojvodina are something like forgotten miracle. The name ‘straw-girls’ is derived from Croatian name for straw. They use straw weaving for making beautiful and poetic description of their hard and lonely life at home which is a small oasis with a hut in immense Panonian golden plain with several trees and unavoidable well. Very common motives are small Catholic churches and Christian symbols. At the 1976 international exhibition of naive art in Moscow Ana Milodanović won the gold medal with her work with straw weaving. Also, Kata Rogić had exceptional honour to present her work to Pope Paul the 6th in Vatican in 1964.

Source vimeo.com



 
Ištvančićev film "Od zrna do slike" nagrađen na festivalu FIFA u Montrealu

Dokumentarni film "Od zrna do slike" redatelja Branka Ištvančića koji je sudjelovao u glavnom programu 32. Međunarodnog festivala filmova o umjetnosti (FIFA) od 20. do 30. ožujka ove godine u Montrealu, nagrađen je prestižnom nagradom Liliane Stewart Award sponzorirane od strane Programa Stewart koji se bavi modernim dizajnom. Ugledna nagrada Liliane Stewart, utemeljena je 2011. godine sa svrhom prepoznavanja najboljih dokumentarnih filmova u svijetu dizajna i umjetnosti, a dodjeljuje se jednom godišnje u povodu Međunarodnog festivala filmova o umjetnosti (FIFA) u Montrealu kao jedna od 12 uglednih nagrada za koje se natječu filmovi iz glavnog programa. Ovogodišnja nagrada Liliane Stewart dodijeljena je hrvatskom filmu „Od zrna do slike“ u režiji Branka Ištvančića na završnom ceremonijalnom dijelu festivala 30. ožujka 2014. u Montrealu. Po riječima René Rozona, redatelja i osnivača festivala FIFA, Stewart Program koji dodjeljulje nagradu Liliane Stewart, pomaže potaknuti filmaše s naglaskom na dizajn i čini da njihov rad bude bolje prepoznat po cijelom svijetu. Međunarodni festival filmova o umjetnosti (FIFA) je neprofitna organizacija posvećena promicanju i predstavljanju najboljih svjetskih produkcija filmova o umjetnosti. Jedanaest dana, koliko traje natjecateljski program festivala, to je ujedno i najvažniji godišnji događaj takve vrste u cijelom svijetu te žarište za susretanje umjetnika i stručnjaka iz likovnih i filmskih svjetskih zajednica. Od osnutka festivala 1981. godine pa do danas, oko 5000 filmova iz 71 zemlje svijeta predstavljeno je publici koja i dalje svake godine raste. Na ovogodišnjem festivalu, po prvi puta je u programu sudjelovao jedan film iz Hrvatske, uvršten od 266 pristiglih filmova iz 38 zemalja svijeta u konkurenciju glavnog programa od 38 filmova koji su se natjecali za jednu od 12 nagrada.

Dokumentarni film "Od zrna do slike" istražuje kulturu i umjetnički izričaj hrvatske nacionalne manjine u Vojvodini. Fokus filma je na "slamarkama", bačkim narodnim umjetnicama koje su svoj idealni medij pronašle u ekološkom materijalu slami iz koje su stvarale slike, skulpture i različite predmete. Film oslikava povezanost njihove svakodnevice i umjetničkog izričaja, njihov specifični socijalni i nacionalni položaj, a protagonosti filma su istaknute slamarke Ana Milodanović i Jozefa Skenderović, povjesničar umjetnosti Bela Duranci, svećenik Andrija Kopilović te publicist Naco Zelić. Kroz niz razgovora i autentičnih snimki, film ukazuje na osamljenost pripadnika hrvatske zajednice u Vojvodini i potiče potrebu obnavljanja ove vještine i kulturne baštine koja postupno nestaje i koja je ugrožena. Jedan od protagonista Ištvančićeva filma je i Ivo Škrabalo, hrvatski filmski kritičar, povjesničar i redatelj, koji je 1971. godine na istu temu snimio istaknuti dokumentarni film "Slamarke divojke", po nekima i jedan od najboljih hrvatskih dokumentarnih filmova.

Autor filma Branko Ištvančić, redatelj igranih filmova (Duh u močvari, 2006., Most na kraju svijeta, 2014.,) i nagrađivanih dokumentarnih filmova (Plašitelj komorana, 1998., Bunarman, 2003.), koji je inače i sam rodom iz Subotice i Tavankuta, gdje se odvija značajan dio filma, veliku je pozornost usmjerio na poetsku atmosferu i vizualno. Poseban naglasak stavljen je na kompoziciju kadra, njegovu puninu sadržajem i značenjem, kolorističku autentičnost i likovnost, baš kao i na same "divojačke" slike. Poruka je jasna: život i umjetnost ovdje nisu odijeljeni već čine jedan život.

Nakon što je premijerno prikazan u službenoj selekciji na festivalu Zagrebdox 2012. godine film „Od zrna do slike“ je sudjelovao na festivalima diljem svijeta te osvojio nagradu Gold Camera za najbolji dokumentarni film na festivalu u Los Angelesu i nagradu Grand Prix za najbolji film festivala u Rumunjskoj, a u Hrvatskoj je nagrađivan nagradama Grand Prix za najbolji film, najbolju režiju i nagradom za najbolji film po ocjeni publike.

Kontakt:

Branko Ištvančić

mobitel: ++385 (0)98 1644572
e-mail: branko.istvancic@gmail.com
web: www.istvancic.com


Formated for CROWN by Darko Žubrinić
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