Black wave cinema film screening - Specijalno Vaspitanje (Special Education) - Friday 7 September 2012

Join us for a rare screening of Yugoslavian director Goran Markovic's powerful film Specijalno Vaspitanje, exploring the Black Wave cinema genre.

This genre in Yugoslavian cinema is considered to have its beginnings in the 1960s and maintained a critical voice and controversial portrayal of Yugoslav society until the slow demise of the socialist pan-Balkan state in the late 1980s. Antagonism from State censors and its characteristically dark humour lent the Black Wave movement its name. By exploring marginalised social issues that verged on the taboo, the film movement was defined by a freedom of expression and a political ambiguity that sought to subvert and rupture the cultural agenda mandated by the Communist regime of its time.

Goran Markovic's Specijalno Vaspitanje follows the story of errant youths and their teacher's unconventional methods to rehabilitate them into the Yugoslavian society of the late 1970s. With unprecedented emphasis on the issues surrounding youths and their nascent identity, Markovic's film still finds resonance today. As current generations of ex-Yugoslavians continue to cautiously negotiate possible cultural identities and the inherited or otherwise terminated histories that have emerged from past conflict, the tendency towards a nostalgia for Yugoslavia ("Yugo-Nostalgia") is explored through this film screenings and a common ground is offered as a platform from which to interrogate and mend a shared history.

This is the first of a series of film screenings curated by RMIT Masters student Stefan Joksic. Join us for the film, a Friday night drink and refreshments.

Friday 7 September 2012, 6.00pm for a 6.15pm start
RMIT Bldg 50, Orr St , Carlton
Entry by gold coin donation