The Subversive Festival is an

annual Annual may refer to: *Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year ** Yearbook ** Literary annual *Annual plant *Annual report *Annual giving *Annual, Morocco, a settlement in northeastern Morocco *Annuals (band), ...

international

fortnight A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days," since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights). Astronomy and tides In astronomy, a ''lunar fortnight'' is ha ...

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

, activist, cultural,

educational Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

and

artistic Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wh ...

events that takes place in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

every May. Its activities are divided into the Subversive Film Festival (which was the official name of the festival until 2011), the Subversive Forum, the Balkan Forum and the Subversive Book Fair. The cross-cutting activity is the Subversive Festival's Conference that includes major keynote lectures and round tables held in Cinema Europe.

Origin and history

The Festival was initially founded as the Subversive Film Festival in 2008 which celebrated the 40th anniversary of the

protests of 1968 The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, predominantly characterized by popular rebellions against state militaries and the bureaucracies. In the United States, these protests marked a turning point for the ci ...

. The initial edition of the festival included screening of the films by Chris Marker and Jean-Luc Godard as well as public lectures by Slavoj Žižek,

Ernesto Laclau Ernesto Laclau (; 6 October 1935 – 13 April 2014) was an Argentine political theorist and philosopher. He is often described as an 'inventor' of post-Marxist political theory. He is well known for his collaborations with his long-term partner ...

Chantal Mouffe Chantal Mouffe (; born 17 June 1943) is a Belgian political theorist, formerly teaching at University of Westminster. She is best known for her contribution to the development—jointly with Ernesto Laclau, with whom she co-authored her most fre ...

and others. Each edition of the festival has an overarching theme that invites critical examination and public debates. In 2009 the Festival was dedicated to China, in the context of the 60th anniversary of the

Communist Revolution A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution often, but not necessarily, inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, socialism can be used as an intermediate stag ...

, whereas in 2010 its theme was the history, present and future of the idea of

socialism Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...

. Following the "

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econo ...

", the 2011 edition was dedicated to

decolonisation Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on independence m ...

as well as to

new social movements The term new social movements (NSMs) is a theory of social movements that attempts to explain the plethora of new movements that have come up in various western societies roughly since the mid-1960s (i.e. in a post-industrial economy) which are cl ...

. The situation in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

prompted the organisers in 2012 to tackle "The Future of Europe", whereas the major theme of 2013's "The Utopia of Democracy" responded to the rise of global movements demanding real

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...

participation Participation or Participant may refer to: Politics *Participation (decision making), mechanisms for people to participate in social decisions *Civic participation, engagement by the citizens in government *e-participation, citizen participation ...

and social

justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

. Che Guevara's daughter Aleida was one of the guests in 2013, as well as Alexis Tsipras, the head of Greece's leftist SYRIZA parliamentary group, both taking part in debates at the festival. In 2013

Srećko Horvat Srećko Horvat (born 28 February 1983) is a Croatian philosopher, author and political activist. The German weekly ''Der Freitag'' called him "one of the most exciting voices of his generation" and he has been described as a "fiery voice of dissen ...

and Igor Štiks left the Subversive Festival together with other members of the program team, "due to differences in understanding the goals and direction of the activist platforms within Subversive Forum and, more generally, the general purpose of Subversive Festival". From 2014 onwards it has been run by a different team. In 2021, after the 2019 closure of the festival's primary venue Europe Cinema, the event moved to four venues and streamed online.

Festival sections

Subversive Festival has several sections.

The Subversive Film Festival

In 2011 the Subversive Film Festival, originally the core of the festival, became one of many festival sections. The

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

consists of a selection of films according to their relation to the main theme of that year's Festival (e.g. 1968, China, Socialism, Decolonisation, Europa Incognita, Utopia of Democracy), retrospectives of acknowledged leftist film authors and

panel discussion A panel discussion, or simply a panel, involves a group of people gathered to discuss a topic in front of an audience, typically at scientific, business, or academic conferences, fan conventions, and on television shows. Panels usually include a ...

s between film theoreticians and

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

s. The most notable film retrospectives so far include an overview of the revolutionary films of the 1960s and 1970s, a selection of

Chinese film The cinema of China is one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-language cinema together with the cinema of Hong Kong and the cinema of Taiwan. Cinema was introduced in China in 1896 and the first Chinese film, '' Dingjun Mountain'' ...

classics and contemporary films, a major retrospective of

Yugoslav cinema The Cinema of Yugoslavia were the films produced in Yugoslavia. Overview The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had an internationally acclaimed film industry. Yugoslavia submitted many films to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Languag ...

( curated by Sergio Germani Grmek) and a selection of contemporary

Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...

cinema.

The sixth edition of the Subversive Film Festival (in 2013) introduced competition categories for contemporary European and international films, selected by the artistic director Dragan Rubeša. The first Wild Dreamer Award for Lifetime Achievement was given to Oliver Stone, whose latest 10-hour-long series the '' Untold History of the United States'' was shown in the main film programme. The Wild Dreamer for Best Documentary Film went to Italian director

Daniele Vicari Daniele Vicari (born 26 February 1967) is an Italian director, screenwriter and producer. Life and career Born in Collegiove, Province of Rieti, Vicari graduated from Rome's University La Sapienza in History and Critics of Cinema under Guido A ...

for '. '' The Land of Hope'' by Japanese director Shion Sono, a story about a family whose father refuses to evacuate his sick wife from a radiation affected area, won the Best Feature Award. French filmmaker Sylvain George's ''Vers Madrid'' (en. ''The Burning Bright!''), which documents demonstrations of the 15-M grassroots protest movement in Spain, was voted Best Film by the audience.

The Subversive Forum

The Subversive Forum is a leftist and progressive event that established itself as an open platform for different and even opposing positions. The Subversive Forum is not connected to any

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

but it attracts individuals of various political stripes on the progressive left and is related to almost all significant Croatian, post-Yugoslav and

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

social movements – from

student movement Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. Although often focused on schools, curriculum, and educational funding, student groups have influenced greater political e ...

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

s, feminist organisations, the Right to the City movements,

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

and

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

activists etc. The Subversive Forum has been supported by the

World Social Forum The World Social Forum (WSF, pt, Fórum Social Mundial ) is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemoni ...

as an official event of the WSF. According to the organizers, the Subversive forum has become "one of the key European mobilisation points for activists and intellectuals from the region and the world, thinking jointly how to build better social systems”

The Balkan Forum

The Balkan Forum was established in 2012 as the platform for cooperation for pan- Balkan social and political movements and organisations from 10 post-socialist countries (

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

, and with strong participation from

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

). The conclusions of the First Balkan Forum highlighted a need for stronger cooperation among these movements as well as for joint action across the peninsula. A huge number of activists gathered in 2012 and 2013 to discuss topics relevant to the region, including neoliberal policies, rampant privatisation, the defense of the

Commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons c ...

, student and workers movements, sex and

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

social change Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. Definition Social change may not refer to the notion of social progress or socio ...

, as well as the questions of

democratisation Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a full ...

and

, the media and

public sphere The public sphere (german: Öffentlichkeit) is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action. A "Public" is "of or concerning the ...

, and alternative

economic model In economics, a model is a theoretical construct representing economic processes by a set of variables and a set of logical and/or quantitative relationships between them. The economic model is a simplified, often mathematical, framework desi ...

s. The Balkan Forum includes both self-organised sessions by movements and organisations themselves as well as

plenary session A plenary session or plenum is a session of a conference which all members of all parties are to attend. Such a session may include a broad range of content, from keynotes to panel discussions, and is not necessarily related to a specific st ...

Networks and influence

Alexis Tsipras, Oliver Stone, Slavoj Zizek (8752107280)

The Subversive Festival established strong ties with the

, The World Forum of Alternatives, Transform! Europe Network,

Attac The Association pour la Taxation des Transactions financières et pour l'Action Citoyenne (''Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Citizen's Action'', ATTAC) is an activist organisation originally created to promote the e ...

Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (german: Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung), named in recognition of Rosa Luxemburg, occasionally referred to as ''Rosa-Lux'', is a transnational alternative policy lobby group and educational institution, centered in Germa ...

Heinrich Böll Foundation The Heinrich Böll Foundation (german: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung e.V., HBS) is a German, legally independent political foundation. Affiliated with the German Green Party, it was founded in 1997 when three predecessors merged. The foundation was n ...

and similar international organisations. The events at the Subversive Festival are usually reported by local and international

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

(

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

Croatian Television ''Hrvatska radiotelevizija'' (abbr. HRT), or Croatian Radiotelevision, is Croatia's public broadcasting company. It operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as well as satellite. HRT is divided into thr ...

, Slovenian Television,

Arte TV Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plu ...

, etc.). The Festival benefits from special media support by media sharing its political vision such as le Monde Diplomatique, La Memoire des Luttes, Transeuropeennes,

Zarez ''Zarez'' ( en, The Comma) was a Croatian biweekly newsprint magazine covering literature, arts, culture and current affairs. History and profile ''Zarez'' was established in 1999 after a group of intellectuals decided to break away from the g ...

, Critic Attac, etc. The 6th edition of the Subversive Festival provoked special attention since it took place just before Croatia's accession to the EU. In this context, the visit of the head of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

opposition Opposition may refer to: Arts and media * ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars * The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band * '' The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Com ...

Syriza Alexis Tsipras and film director Oliver Stone was particularly followed both by local audience and international media. A joke made by Slavoj Žižek during the public debate with Tsipras provoked a controversy in Greece.

Notable guests

The Festival's conference attracts thousands of visitors from all over the world. Many prominent intellectuals have given keynote lectures and participated in

public debate :''for debate among the public, see Public sphere'' Public debate may mean simply debating by the public, or in public. The term is also used for a particular formal style of debate in a competitive or educational context. Two teams of two compe ...

s, including Slavoj Žižek, Oliver Stone, Alexis Tsipras,

Tariq Ali Tariq Ali (; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and con ...

Aleida Guevara Aleida Guevara March ( Guevara; born 24 November 1960) is the eldest daughter of four children born to Ernesto "Che" Guevara and his second wife, Aleida March. She is a doctor of medicine, based at the ''William Soler Children's Hospital'' in ...

Terry Eagleton Terence Francis Eagleton (born 22 February 1943) is an English literary theorist, critic, and public intellectual. He is currently Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University. Eagleton has published over forty books, ...

Gayatri Spivak Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Lite ...

Michael Hardt Michael Hardt (born 1960) is an American political philosopher and literary theorist. Hardt is best known for his book ''Empire'', which was co-written with Antonio Negri. Hardt and Negri suggest that several forces which they see as domin ...

Antonio Negri Antonio "Toni" Negri (born 1 August 1933) is an Italian Spinozistic-Marxist sociologist and political philosopher, best known for his co-authorship of ''Empire'' and secondarily for his work on Spinoza. Born in Padua, he became a political p ...

Saskia Sassen Saskia Sassen (born January 5, 1947) is a Dutch-American sociologist noted for her analyses of globalization and international human migration. She is Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University in New York City, and Centennial ...

, Wang Hui, Minqi Li, Karl-Heinz Dellwo,

David Harvey David W. Harvey (born 31 October 1935) is a British-born Marxist economic geographer, podcaster and Distinguished Professor of anthropology and geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He received his P ...

Erik Olin Wright Erik Olin Wright (February 9, 1947 – January 23, 2019) was an American analytical Marxist sociologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, specializing in social stratification and in egalitarian alternative futures to capitalism. He w ...

Bernard Stiegler Bernard Stiegler (; 1 April 1952 – 5 August 2020) was a French philosopher. He was head of the Institut de recherche et d'innovation (IRI), which he founded in 2006 at the Centre Georges-Pompidou. He was also the founder in 2005 of the polit ...

Franco Berardi Franco "Bifo" Berardi (born 2 November 1949) is an Italian Marxist philosopher, theorist and activist in the autonomist tradition, whose work mainly focuses on the role of the media and information technology within post-industrial capitalism. B ...

, Karl-Markus Gauss, Renata Salecl, Boris Buden, Dubravka Ugrešić,

Želimir Žilnik Želimir Žilnik ( sr-cyr, Желимир Жилник; ; born 8 September 1942) is a Serbian film director best known as one of the major figures of the Yugoslav Black Wave film movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Early life Žilnik was born in 19 ...

, Aleš Debeljak,

Samir Amin Samir Amin ( ar, سمير أمين) (3 September 1931 – 12 August 2018) was an Egyptian-French Marxian economist, political scientist and world-systems analyst. He is noted for his introduction of the term Eurocentrism in 1988 and considered ...

etc. Image:Mesic May 06.jpg,

Stipe Mesić Stipe may refer to: Biological terminology * Stipe (botany) * Stipe (mycology) In mycology, a stipe () is the stem or stalk-like feature supporting the cap of a mushroom. Like all tissues of the mushroom other than the hymenium, the stipe is ...

Image:Alexis Tsipras on Subversive Festival.jpg, Alexis Tsipras File:Oliver_Stone_receiving_Wild_Dreamer_Award.jpg, Oliver Stone File:David_Harvey_on_Subversive_Festival.jpg,

Image:Terry Eagleton in Manchester 2008.jpg,

Image:AntonioNegri SeminarioInternacionalMundo.jpg,

File:Žižek_on_Subversive_Festival.jpg, Slavoj Žižek Image:Zigmunt Bauman na 20 Forumi vydavciv.jpg,

Zygmunt Bauman Zygmunt Bauman (; 19 November 1925 – 9 January 2017) was a Polish sociologist and philosopher. He was driven out of the Polish People's Republic during the 1968 Polish political crisis and forced to give up his Polish citizenship. He emigrat ...

Image:Shyam Benegal.jpg, Shyam Benegal Michael Hardt on Subversive Festival.jpg,

Image:Vattimo, Gianni (1936-vivente) - Foto di Giovanni Dall'Orto - Como 22-5-99.jpg,

Gianni Vattimo Gianteresio Vattimo (born 4 January 1936) is an Italian philosopher and politician. Biography Gianteresio Vattimo was born in Turin, Piedmont. He studied philosophy under the existentialist Luigi Pareyson at the University of Turin, and graduat ...

File:Tariq_Ali_on_Subversive_Festival.jpg,

File:Gayatri_Spivak_on_Subversive_Festival.jpg,

Image:Zzilnik 2008jul.jpg,

Image:Renata Salecl, Subversive Film Festival, Zagreb.JPG, Renata Salecl Image:Europe Ecologie closing rally regional elections 2010-03-10 n04.jpg, Stéphane Hessel File:Saskia Sassen at the Subversive Festival (cropped).jpg,

File:Yanis Varoufakis Subversive interview 2013 cropped.jpg,

Yanis Varoufakis Ioannis "Yanis" Varoufakis ( el, Ιωάννης Γεωργίου "Γιάνης" Βαρουφάκης, Ioánnis Georgíou "Giánis" Varoufákis, ; born 24 March 1961) is a Greek economist and politician. A former academic, he served as the Gree ...

File:Aleida_Guevara_on_Subversive_Festival.jpg,

File:Samir Amin.jpg,

References

External links

Official web site
{{Zagreb Festivals in Zagreb Spring (season) events in Croatia 2008 establishments in Croatia Recurring events established in 2008 Film festivals established in 2008