The 7th STIFF festival opening marked by stories about traveling and sound occupations of the city

7th Student International Film Festival (STIFF) was opened yesterday (26.11.) at 6 p.m. in Art-kino in Rijeka. 

The Rijeka audience did not waver in these peculiar times, so all the seats in the cinema hall, as many as were allowed in compliance with the prescribed epidemiological measures were booked. During her opening speech, Jana Ažić from the Student Cultural Center of the University of Rijeka thanked Art-kino, which is hosting the festival for the seventh year, and the volunteers who are, as always, participating in various aspects of the festival production. She gave special thanks to the audience as well, for whom this Festival was created, and who gives us the strength to keep going.

Bernard Koludrović addressed the audience on behalf of the European Capital of Culture – Rijeka 2020 to announce Sound Occupations, this year’s accompanying program of STIFF, which is also a part of the official cultural and artistic program of ECC 2020. After him, the curator and head of SKC Gallery Elena Apostolovski thanked Katarina Erak, Ema Puceković, and Vita Matić, students who participated in setting the exhibition of Sound Occupations and enabled the accompanying program of the festival to be successfully realized despite all the challenges.

The film program opened with the program block Adieu, which included the fiction film Stamp, a finalist of the student Oscars by Lovro Mrđen, I Want to Return, Return, Return by Elsa Rosengren, who won 3rd place for best short film at Cannes this year, and a fantastic animation from Estonia Zorg II by Auden Lincoln Vogel.

The program Wanderers followed at 8 p.m., which we were introduced to with Fata Morgana, a documentary animation about the nomadic lifestyle by Daniella Bokor, Leanna Berkovitch, after which we watched the film For Your Sake (Ronja Hemm), another travel documentary about generational change in Nepal, and the fiction film Sherbet about lovers wandering on the outskirts of the city at night by the young award-winning author Nikola Stojanović.

Sound Occupations and Performance

After the film screenings, the journey from Art-kino to the opening of the Sound Occupations exhibition at the SKC Gallery in Palach was led by a powerful performance Hodogram by the Rijeka dance group Flame led by Martina Hrlić Rogić. The performance explored the effects of changing direction and gait on individuals and society, and it marked the opening of a rich accompanying program of this year’s STIFF dedicated to sound, which in the next three days will invite us to question our own relationship with the society through sound occupations of the gallery, virtual, radio and public spaces of the city.

The opening of Sound Occupations occurred at two locations: The SKC Gallery in Palach hosted an international multimedia exhibition with over 30 audio-visual artists from around the world who use new technologies and sound experiments to question new possibilities of connection and communication in current times of lesser possibilities of physical contact. In Soundbox, a temporary gallery at Korzo 26C, we could see a part of the exhibition focused on intimate dialogues and monologues with a view of the outside world.

Both exhibitions will be open to the public until the end of the festival (November 29) from 1 to 6 p.m.

What awaits in the next few days

The film program continues on Friday at 6:30 p.m. with the program block Edges, followed by Tripping Out at 8:00 p.m. The weekend brings us more free time, so on Saturday, we will have as many as four program blocks starting at 3 p.m. Also, we will be joined by our guests Filip Lončarić (Effortless) and Bela Bračko-Milešević (I Still Don’t Know), this year’s participants of the regional film festivals, who will present their films to the audience. On Sunday, the last day of the festival, we will have three film programs starting at 4 p.m. and the announcement of the winners at the end.

From Friday (November 27) at noon, until Sunday, the accompanying festival program Sound Occupations will continue via the radio waves of Radio Roža on the Chatterbox show, which will offer us an online audio catalog of opened exhibitions, and interviews with numerous artists.

On Saturday, perhaps the most exciting part of the accompanying program called Everyday Soundtrack awaits: at 9 a.m., a sound installation opens in the underpass near Rijeka’s market, as well as an additional audio surprise through a megaphone in the Theater Park. These sonic treats will be available to visitors as well as casual passers-by on Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. In case of rain, the installation will be moved from the Theater Park to the HNK (Croatian National Theatre) entrance.

All interested in attending the festival on-site are recommended to book their tickets via Art-kino’s e-mail: [email protected]. Entrance to all programs is free!

The online audience can access the festival on https://studentfilmfestival.eu/hr/ and vote for films in the category of audience choice.

Student International Film Festival (STIFF) was first organized in 2014 by Filmaktiv Association and Student Cultural Centre in Rijeka (SKC) with the goal of presenting the best of the recent world production of student and debutant film. 

The festival is organized in partnership with Art-kino Croatia and Radio Roža, and is co-funded by the University of Rijeka, Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), Croatian Film Directors Association (DHFR), European Capital of Culture Rijeka 2020, and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.