Field Recordings Day 2 – In Focus: Ivana Mladenovic

This focus programme gathers three of Ivana Mladenović’s early shorts, rarely screened and made with little means and a DIY ethos. Filmed across Serbia and Romania, they observe life at the margins with patience and trust, in the years before she turned to feature filmmaking.

In the village
Ivana Mladenović
12 min, MiniDV transferred to digital, Serbia, 2009
Serbian with English subtitles
In the Village is set during the summer holiday in Mladenović’s hometown Kladovo, on the Serbian side of the Danube river. Via often humorous conversations with her relatives and while observing the summer rhythms of the place, we witness a transitory moment in Mladenović’s life – after leaving home for studying in Romania and just before becoming a film director.

Biology Class
Ivana Mladenović
40 min, 16mm transferred to digital, Romania, 2016
Romanian with English subtitles
Using an observation mode, Biology Class accompanies children and teenagers in the school for students with visual impairments. The film follows them during school activities, and while learning everyday tasks, focusing on their interactions with teachers and parents, and revealing gestures of care, attention and trust.

Leaves of Grass
Ivana Mladenović
9 min, 16mm transferred to digital, Romania, 2016
Romanian with English subtitles
On the outskirts of Bucharest, teenage twin brothers train for a local boxing championship. The film observes them as they prepare, wait, and spend time together before entering the ring. Boxing’s inherent brutality is counteracted by the presence of Walt Whitman’s poem Leaves of Grass.

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Ivana Mladenović (1984) is a Serbian director living and working in Romania. Her body of work spans narrative feature films, documentaries and experimental videos made in a DIY spirit. In her films, she is an acute observer and a firm presence, and her camerawork persistent and piercing. Her recent feature films were shown widely in the film festival circuit, but the older shorts remain rarely screened. At Field Recordings 6 we will bring attention to her less known work.

Filmmaker Ivana Mladenović will be present for a live Q&A