Festival će otvoriti domaći dokumentarni film Govori da bih te video Marije Stojnić, koji će biti prikazan nakon uspešnih nastupa na svetskim festivalima
The festival will open with a screening of the local documentary film Speak So I Can See You by Marija Stojnić, which will be shown after having performed successfully at film festivals worldwide
FATHER ARSENIE From artist to clergyman Serbian director and producer Svetlana Cemin’s documentary film Father Arsenie represents a uniquely intimate portrait of a modern and unusual monk with lofty objectives
of his monastic life, we discover that he is simultaneously a talented sculp- tor, painter and poet. I sincerely hope that, through this film, you will feel the good vibrations that are emitted by Father Arsenie, which give strength to the human psyche to expand ho- rizons, but also to bind us warmly to our own roots.” Why specifically was Man- hattan the place where Fa- ther Arsenie discovered Or- thodoxy? “He lived in Manhattan in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, where he at- tempted to prove himself as an artist. Why the life of an artist was replaced with the life of a monk was the cen- tral question of the film. at is un- doubtedly because of the great inten- sity of the experiences he was going through at the time, which led him to indescribably painful experiences. e moment when he came into con- tact with Christianity through paint- ing was when the light opened from that gloomy tunnel, and his power was redirected towards spiritual de- velopment.” You already knew each other back in Belgrade? “In the past we were part of the milieu of Belgrade’s artistic world, which in the meantime has unfor- tunately melted away. rough his openness to the world and constant
The thirteenth edition of the Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival will be held in
Belgrade from 3 rd to 10 th September references to higher goals, Father Ar- senie became an important spiritual leader of Orthodoxy, while at the same time a consistent artist who doesn’t stop creating.” What do you remember the most from your time model- ling? You collaborated with the world’s greatest fashion creators... “I spent the first year after leav- ing Belgrade in Milan, and it was on- ly upon arriving in Paris, when I ar- rived for casting at Yves San Laurent, that I realised the door to the top of world fashion had opened to me. I worked for Givenchy, Dior, Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, Versace, Oscar de la Renta etc. I remember my first fash- ion show for Jean Paul Gaultier, who was just beginning at the time. I wore his avant-garde designs that he gave me instead of payment. I still have them in my closet.” And then came the even more glamorous world of acting and Broadway? “Upon arrival in Manhattan, I first started attending acting class- es and after six months I’d already got my first lead role in the play “Oh, Manhattan”. Although I’m currently dealing with film, my first and great- est love is the theatre stage. Of all the celebrities I’ve met, Meryl Streep left the deepest impression on me, because she has both feet firmly on the ground, and perhaps also because her husband is a sculptor like mine.”
THROUGH A DEPICTION OF THE DAILY LIFE OF Father Arsenie and his recollections of his turbulent past from his secular life, the director highlights the transformation process of an urban avant-garde artist into a cleric. e film was shot in Manhat- tan, where Father Arsenie “discov- ered” Orthodoxy, and at the Ribni- ca Monastery, where he serves as the abbot. It will have its premiere screen- ing as part of the “Special Screenings” selection at this year’s 13 th edition of the Beldocs International Documen- tary Film Festival. “ e life story of Father Arsenie is fascinating in and of itself, and sought an answer to the question of how it happened that an urban, avant-garde artist transformed into a senior cleric. rough all the years
Autorka filma sa ocem Arsenijem na Menhetnu Author of the film with father Arsenie in Manhattan
Beldocs » Beldoks | 31
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