The Autumn Film School, an international symposium on film criticism and theory, will this year take place under the title Against Oblivion: Queer Film and Memory. The focus is on marginalized LGBTQ+ cultures and images that have, over time, been pushed out of official histories and collective memory—or erased altogether. In doing so, the Autumn Film School continues the thematic trajectory begun by last year’s symposium, which focused on women’s overlooked contributions to film history and practice.
This year’s edition addresses questions of how we can access the past of those who have been excluded. How can we identify and archive fragments of non-heterosexual traces and transgender expressions? How do we archive absence, hints, and ephemeral objects to resist the erasure of alternative cultures and ways of life? What role do (film) images play in shaping identities and understanding queer pasts?
Among the speakers, Swedish scholar Dagmar Brunow will address the topic of archiving queer images and their inscription into cultural memory. Focusing on Southeast and Eastern Europe—the thematic anchor of this year’s symposium—Anamarija Horvat from Northumbria University (UK) will discuss queer representations in the cinema of the former Yugoslavia. The visual language of the queer Balkans will also be explored in a film discussion with Kukla.
Lectures will be complemented by panel discussions exploring the potential of popular culture in shaping cultural memory, queer curatorial practices in Slovenia and abroad (from the Festival of LGBT Film to City of Women and Red Dawns), and, in collaboration with the 31st City of Women Festival, a round table on queer archives as spaces of resistance in the Balkans. Special attention will also be given to Ukraine—to its Soviet past and to its contemporary queer film and activist scenes—through the perspectives of guest curators and artists Yulia Serdyukova, Galka Yarmanova, and Svitlana Shymko.
The discursive program at the Slovenian Cinematheque will be accompanied by a film retrospective that redefines film classics through a queer lens: Boštjan Hladnik’s Kill Me Softly (1979), the Slovenian camp manifesto; Želimir Žilnik’s anti-war cry Marble Ass (1995); and Srđan Dragojević’s The Parade (2011), a sharp critique of homophobia, nationalism, chauvinism, and fascist tendencies.
The overview of Balkan queer cinema continues with Croatian films: the intimate animated short Y (2023) by Matea Kovač and Dana Budisavljević’s documentary Family Meals (2011). The retrospective also includes a program of Ukrainian short films, which revisits the work of Sergei Parajanov through a queer lens. A double feature—Life in Pink (1969) by renowned Romanian filmmaker Dan Pița and A Bag of Fleas (1962), the debut of Czech cinema pioneer Věra Chytilová – explores the power of the gaze and the unspoken beyond the film frame.
The Soviet-era films Dubravka (1967) and The Strict Young Man (1935) by Abram Room, presented alongside John Greyson’s experimental documentary Moscow Does Not Believe in Queers (1986), demonstrate how skilled filmmakers could use Aesopian language to open subversive themes even within the constraints of the patriarchal Soviet discourse—revisiting notions of comradeship and eros as introduced by revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai.
The Autumn Film School is organized by the Slovenian Cinematheque in collaboration with the journal Ekran, the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture at the Faculty of Social Sciences, City of Women, and Škuc Gallery.
You can find the full program, including lecture details and locations, here.
