Special programs
Adaptation of literary and theatrical works for film and TV – Masterclass by Branko Schmidt
The Masterclass by Branko Schmidt, one of the most prominent Croatian film directors and winner of the Vladimir Nazor Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024, on the topic "Adaptation of literary and theatrical works for film and TV" will be based above all on Schmidt's personal experience and work. With Ivan Kušan, he adapted the book "The Mysterious Boy" into seven episodes of the TV series "Operation Barbarossa", with Fabijan Šovagović he adapted the theater drama "Sokol Did Not Love HIm" into a film script, and the works of Ivan and Josip Kozarac into a TV series and the film "Đuka Begović". With Ognjen Sviličić, he adapted Ivo Balenović's novel into the screenplay of the now cult film "Metastasis", and independently adapted Balenović's novel "Vegetarian Cannibal" for the film. He is currently working with Vivien Karlović and Igor Beleš on the film adaptation of Beleš's extremely popular novel "Listanje kupusa". Schmidt points out that there is no "magic formula" for translating theatrical and literary works into film scripts, but each work requires an original, different approach. Sometimes the path to the text is short and easy, and sometimes long and arduous. As examples, Branko cites "Metastasis" with over 200 versions of the script or "Vegetarian Cannibal" with only 3 versions of the script.
Branko Schmidt was born in Osijek in 1957. In 1981, his graduate work at the Academy of Fine Arts was created, the notable TV drama "Rano sazrijevanje Marka Kovača". The following year, he filmed the TV drama "Hildegard", which was declared the best TV drama of the former state.
In 1988, he directed his first full-length film "Sokol Did Not Love Him" based on the play of the same name by Fabijan Šovagović and won the award for debutant of the year at the Pula festival. For HRT, he recorded several dramas, documentaries and the TV series "Hajdučki gaj" in 1985, with Pavlo Vujisić and "Operation Barbarossa" in 1989 based on the work of the writer Ivan Kušan. In the 1990s, he directed four more full-length films, "Đuka Begović" in 1991, "Vukovar is coming home" in 1994, "Christmas in Vienna" in 1997, and "Srce nije u modi" in 1999. Then follows the movie "Queen of the Night" (2001). Schmidt was a member of the Pula jury several times, and was a member of the jury of international film festivals in Moscow, Cottbus, Orenburg and others. In 2006, his most awarded film "The Melon Route" followed. In 2009, "Metastases" won the Pula Festival and the Belgrade FEST. Branko Schmidt received the annual Vladimir Nazor award. In 2012, "Vegetarian Cannibal" won 5 Golden Arenas in Pula. In 2014, he won in Yerevan with "Ungiven". 2017. Followed by: "Agape" and "Once We Were Good For You" in 2021. Documentary film "Petrinja 12:19 PM" in 2022 is his last work. In 2024, Branko won the Vladimir Nazor Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Small” Filmmaking with Big Impact – Masterclass by JC Guest
The seminar focuses on using constraints as advantages in independent filmmaking, using Guest’s recent film and television projects as case studies, which are historical in nature. Topics covered will include: grappling with mixed format source media as a stylistic choice for documentaries, ambitious filmmaking in the face of limited budgets and resources, working with unexpected constraints encountered during production, and navigating public domain and fair use in the USA, among other overlooked facets of production and post-production. The masterclass will draw upon examples from Guest’s works with John Alexander and Shawn Rhodes, including but not limited to This Is Love, a feature documentary executive produced by Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac) and Little Satchmo, a 2023 Emmy Award winning made for television feature documentary on Louis Armstrong’s secret daughter, both of which screened at previous editions of the History Film Festival. Themes of film rules and rule-breaking will emerge as a pattern in this exposé on what it takes to make small films with the biggest impact, and why “bigger” films do not always mean “better” films.
JC Guest is an Emmy-winning writer and producer whose work includes award winning features Little Satchmo, This Is Love and Bender. With John Alexander, she founded Crook & Nanny Productions, where she has recently supervised post-production of features including The Sunshine Dreamer with Mel Gibson and Joe Rogan, Open Field with the San Francisco 49ers, newly completed documentary God As My Witness, Stoke and numerous commercial projects. She worked with veteran production advisor David Alper through post-production of Robert Redford’s A Walk In The Woodsas well as pre-production of Equals, starring Kristen Stewart. An invited guest of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Southern Circuit of Independent Filmmakers, she has led film master classes in fair use, licensing, production, and post-production. JC graduated cum laude from Harvard majoring in English with a minor in Visual Studies.
Exhibition on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the first Austro-Hungarian polar expedition
The exhibition presents well known Austro-Hungarian scientific and research expedition of conquest of the Arctic from 1872 to 1874 in which 12 of 24 members of the crew were sailors from the Adriatic. The leaders of the expedition, Weyprecht and Payer, named them – Quarneroli.
The selection of the crew from the Adriatic was criticized. There were opinions that sailors from the warm Adriatic could not stand to the difficulties of winter and North. However, after they happily returned from the expedition Weyprecht and Littrow (who helped to choose the crew) could only say that they were right – sailor from the Adriatic were extraordinary in all conditions!
In terms of science, this expedition is antecedent of researches of climate change and the influence of Arctic on the rest of the planet Earth.
The polar expedition ship ‘’Admiral Tegetthoff’’ was trapped in ice after only 2 months of sailing and it remained there forever. The crew returned to civilisation after 2 years and 3 months.
The most spectacular discovery of this expedition is the previously unknown island archipelago consisting of 191 islands, which they named "Franz Josef Land". Cape Fiume and many other toponyms known to us have existed on that archipelago since then.
One of the sailors, Ante Zaninović, was from Hvar and Ante Lukinović was from Brač. The other sailors were from Plomin, Volosko, Opatija, Lovran, Bakar, Mali Lošinj, Rijeka, Cres and Triest.
