Non-Aligned Newsreels: Fragments #5

With NON-ALIGNED NEWSREELS: FRAGMENTS #5, Mila Turajlić invites the audience to engage in a process of confrontation with archival material that has been excluded from political narratives. Starting from the recovery of a trove of reels kept in the vaults of the Yugoslav Newsreels in her hometown, Belgrade, Mila Turajlić takes the audience on a journey across a decolonising world. The footage, filmed by Yugoslav cameramen, from 1950 onwards, leads us within the ranks of the Algerian Liberation Movement and Liberation Front of Mozambique FRELIMO, to newly-independent countries such as Mali and Tanzania, and the foundational gathering of the Non-Aligned Movement, which took place in Belgrade, in 1961. Layering this “resurfaced” footage with oral histories, sound recordings and personal diaries into a confessional speculation, Turajlić’s performance voices the challenges of re-activating political voices muted from history.

Further information about the research project can be found on the website of “Non-Aligned Newsreels”.