MARTA BARADIĆ: “STREET OF WOMEN ANCESTORS” FILM PROGRAM
MARTA BARADIĆ: “Street of women ancestors” FILM PROGRAM
VERA and ERŽIKA (1981), 75’, D: ŽELIMIR ŽILNIK
FILM projection and discussion
Thursday, 30/05/2019, 7 PM
Documentary drama Vera and Eržika follows the lives of two women workers at the Trudbenik textile factory in Pančevo, as they face numerous problems and misunderstandings just as they are about to reach retirement. Although they have been working at the factory since they were thirteen, the provisions of the new retirement act only see them as having been employed since the age of fifteen. All of a sudden, they have found themselves two years short of earning the right to retire. With the issue of retirement as the source of dramatic conflict, the film showcases the emotional states of the heroines and their families, their relationships with colleagues, and an entire array of moods and preoccupations of people at the end of their working life.
By presenting the particularities of women workers’ everyday lives, starting with the difficulties of factory and shift work, the film raises a range of broader topics, such as the issue of reproductive labour, labour and social rights, health and social care, as well as the issues of solidarity and unity. Although the sphere of production has changed significantly in the last 30 years, Vera and Eržika still raise a number of key issues fundamental to the current struggles, such as the recent efforts to prevent raising the retirement age limit, or the struggle against the limitations and assaults on women’s sexual and reproductive rights.
The format of the film program at baza is expanded: following the projection there will be a discussion with the program’s curator, Marta Baradić, who will be joined by sociologist Jelena Ostojić.
As the film section of the Artists for the Neighbourhood program and its thematic framework – the issue of heritage, Street of Women Ancestors primarily seeks to highlight the history and continuity of the struggle to improve the position of women in society, and to emphasize the fact that the current political, labour and social rights have not earned themselves through inertia, but are the result of concrete, painstaking and recent struggles.
Financial support: Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and the City of zagreb Office for Education, Culture and Sport.
BAZA’s annual program is supported by the Kultura Nova foundation.
BLOK is a beneficiary of the institutional support for the development and/or stabilisation of organisations provided by the National Foundation for Civil Society Development.
