Cinemaniac

CINEMANIAC – Think film, research in progress
Curated by: Branka Benčić

CINEMANIAC is an ongoing research platform based on issues around film/cinema, artist moving image and contemporary art, established in 2002 as the support program at the Pula Film Festival. It takes shape of the exhibition and discoursive formats presenting works of Croatian and international artists aiming to bring them closer to a wide audience. As an ongoing research and exhibition project, Cinemaniac emerged from the desire to present works from the world of art and film at the crossroads of these media. From its beginning, it has been an active context enabling the presentation of works of art, as a meeting place where social, cultural, technological, media and aesthetic aspects integrate, an intersection where art, artists, institutions and audiences meet, where new forms of collaboration are formed, and where relationships between film and visual arts are discussed. It is a place where recent Croatian and international production of artists films, artistic videos, experimental and alternative films and multimedia installations is presented, where alternative film heritage is revealed and articulated, and artists and anthological works are presented.

Today, the reaffirmation and re-actualization of experimental, alternative and amateur cinematography and the contemporary audiovisual production of “artists’ films” is equally present in galleries and museums, cinemas and film festivals through attempts of opening up new discursive spaces. The exhibitions and projects within the past, current and future platform Think Film, as research in progress, are a continuation of past experiences: architecture and film (2009), exhibition as interface (2006), historical heritage of alternative, amateur and experimental film through the research and presentation of MAFAF Festival 1965 – 1991 (2010), a 2011 look backwards, the retrospective CINEMANIAC X, and “cinema by other means” through the Film Leaflet by Slobodan Šijan (2012), Think film (2013) celebrating 60 years of Pula Film Festival. Cinemaniac 2014 gathers 2 projects: exhibition PAPER MOVIES and screening program ARTISTS’ CINEMA.