The international festival Days of Ethnographic Film (DEF) is a joint venture of Slovene Ethnological Society and Research Centre of Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The festival has not competitive nature; it has a section of student films and a section of other films. During the festival Slovene Ethnological Society is giving Niko Kuret’s awards for the merits in the development of ethnog
raphic film in Slovenia. So far the laureates were: Allison Jablonko, Asen Balikci, Andrej O. Župančič, Boris Kuhar, Herta Maurer Lausegger and Naško Križnar. Days of Ethnographic Film is the member of CAFFE (Coordinating anthropological film festivals of Europe). From 2015, the festival is biennial. DEF is dedicated to the ethnographic films, which are made by anthropologists and ethnologists, but also by documentary filmmakers. Ethnographic film flourished in the scientific field of anthropology and ethnology, where realistic property of film medium was enthusiastically accepted and later gradually formalized in special methods and approaches. Some of this legacy was simultaneously or interchangeably developed by documentary filmmakers, who believed in similar aesthetics ideals and had the same ethic principles, for instance authors who used observational, cinéma vérité or direct cinema styles. The production of ethnographic and documentary films in the world is huge. But many films can’t reach to the public, because their style is not suitable for regular distributions like cinema and public TV. Our wish and commitment is that we build meeting point for audience and authors, who would like to see or show these films.
//
Mednarodni festival Dnevi etnografskega filma (DEF) organizirajo Slovensko etnološko društvo in Znanstvenoraziskovalni center SAZU. Festival nima tekmovalnega značaja, program sestavljata sekciji študentskih in ostalih filmov. Za redni program selektor vsako leto izbere okoli 30 filmov. V okviru DEF Slovensko etnološko društvo vsako leto podeljuje Plaketo Nika Kureta za zasluge pri razvoju etnografskega filma v Sloveniji. Dosedanji nagrajenci so dr. Allison Jablonko, dr. Asen Balikci, akad. prof. Andrej O. Župančič, dr. Boris Kuhar, dr. Herta Maurer Lausegger in dr. Naško Križnar. Dnevi etnografskega filma so včlanjeni v CAFFE (Coordinating Anthropological Film Festivals of Europe). Od leta 2015 je festival bienalni, v vmesnem medletu pa ga nadomeščajo posebni dogodki, npr. retrospektive ali posvetovanja. DEF je posvečen etnografskim dokumentarnim filmom, ki jih ustvarjajo etnologi in antropologi, pa tudi neodvisni filmarji in dokumentaristi. Etnografski film se umešča v disciplino etnologije oz. antropologije, ki je relativno kmalu in z veliko mero navdušenja sprejela medij filma, njegov aspekt dokumentiranja realnosti, ter ob njem razvila posebne metode in pristope. Danes to nasledstvo ne uporabljajo zgolj vizualni etnografi, ampak tudi ostali humanistični raziskovalci in filmski dokumentaristi, ki gojijo sorodne estetike, na primer pristope observacijskega sloga, filma resnice in direktnega filma. Na festivalu se zato prikazujejo tudi ostali dokumentarni filmi, ki imajo podobna načela kot vizualna etnografija. V svetu se posname veliko zanimivih dokumentarnih filmov, ki pa zaradi neodvisne produkcije ali avtorjevega individualnega pristopa težko najdejo pot do gledalcev. Naša želja in poslanstvo je, da bi gledalcem v Sloveniji omogočili ogled etnografskih in dokumentarnih filmov, ki se težko uvrstijo v redno distribucijo oziroma na javno televizijo.
