Journal No. 1
Synopsis
Two years after the end of the Second World War, Film Journal No. 1 was released in Sarajevo, and four years after the collapse of the Communist bloc this newsreel, which has only survived on nitrate film, was lost in the confusion of the fighting in Yugoslavia. In Journal No. 1 An artists impression Hito Steyerl attempts to find out what was on this film document from Sarajevos Sutjeska studio. She listens to eyewitnesses, and according to her instructions artist Arman Kulasic made a number of drawings that resemble storyboards for some lost film.
© Hito Steyerl
On one level, Journal No. 1 is about the role of film as historical testimony. More specifically, it addresses the way in which film as a medium was instrumental in constructing one of the founding myths of Yugoslavia, involving the campaign for the literacy and enlightenment of its rural population. However, the burning of the archives of the Sutjeska film studios during the last Bosnian war (1992-1995) – Steyerl’s focal point – erased all visual documentation of the literacy campaign in rural Bosnia in 1947. Steyerl’s short film about the absent visual testimony of Bosnia’s past deals with forgetting as an effect of violence and contingency.
Tomislav Z. Longinović, ARTMargins Online, 2009-02-17 · read the full text
I serien Den 1:a på Moderna visas Hito Steyerls film Journal No. 1 – An artist’s impression som också för tankarna till journalistiken. I filmen letar Steyerl efter en gammal försvunnen journalfilm. Hon tar sig an problematiken med etnisk tillhörighet i Bosnien och Hercegovina under inbördeskriget.
trans.In the series The 1st at Moderna, Hito Steyerl's film Journal No. 1 – An Artist's Impression is shown, which likewise brings journalism to mind. In the film Steyerl searches for an old, vanished newsreel. She takes on the problem of ethnic belonging in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the civil war.Rikard Ekholm, Svenska Dagbladet, 19 January 2008 · in sv · read the full text
Credits
Germany/Bosnia-Herzegovina 2007, 21 min, DV. Director: Hito Steyerl. Editor: Stefan Landorf. Protagonists: Devleta Filipović, Halid Bunić, Arman Kulašić. Producer: Boris Buden. Associate producers: Gabi Babić, Dunja Blažević, Ute Meta Bauer. Sponsored by Goethe-Institut and documenta 12. — documenta 12 press images: video stills, photo Julia Fuchs, © Hito Steyerl.