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Honoring 20 years of Factum
Factum is the leading independent documentary film production house in Croatia. It was founded by Nenad Puhovski in 1997 within the Drama Arts Center of the (Soros’s) Open Society Institution.
Based on the utter respect of the authors’ right to full creative freedom, Factum also provides filmmakers with sufficient time to develop and complete their projects, as well as with a necessary minimum of the filmmaking equipment. It has been bringing together representatives of different generations of documentary filmmakers, while continuing to develop and embracing new principles of creative, organizational and financial approach to documentary filmmaking.
Over the past two decades, Factum produced 77 documentary films which were screened in 159 national and international film festivals wining a total of 93 awards.
Although strongly defined by their authors’ unique and distinctive style, films produced by Factum can be broadly grouped into three different categories:
• Having been founded at the time when there were many “taboo” issues, Factum produced a number of films that openly addressed the contemporary history of Croatia and the region and occasionally provoked public discussion, criticism and even confrontation
• Carrying on with the Croatian documentary filmmaking tradition, Factum dedicated a significant share of its films to the people from the margins of the society, with special focus on contemporary issues of social homogenization and violation of minority rights
• Striving to address important issues in a unique way, without conforming to the standard aesthetics of TV documentary, Factum has always been developing and supporting autobiographical documentaries, some of which counts among its most successful recent projects
Although not an official festival event, the screening on April 3, 1998 of Factum’s first film, GRAHAM AND I, at the Sarajevo’s Meeting Point Cinema was the starting point of ongoing friendship and partnership between Factum and the Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF). The film by Nenad Puhovski that recounted the tragic story of British citizen Graham Bamford and his fight to draw the attention of the world to the true nature of the war in Bosnia was screened in Sarajevo at the invitation of Mirsad Purivatra.
Since 2001, 14 Factum’s films have been screened, and as many as 6 were awarded at the SFF:
• A TWO WAY MIRROR by Zrinka Matijević won the HRT Award of the SFF’s Docu Rough Cut Boutique program
• THREE by Goran Dević won EDN Talent Grant
• STRAIGHT A’S! by Dana Budisavljević won Special Mention of the Human Rights Jury of the SFF
• HAPPILY EVER AFTER (coproduction) by Tatjana Božić won Special Mention of the Documentary Film Competition Program
• CHASING A DREAM (coproduction) by Mladen Mitrović won Audience Award for documentary film
• NAKED ISLAND by Tiha K. Gudac won the Heart of Sarajevo Award for best documentary film
Other Factum’s films that were screened in the official competition program of the SFF include: ČEDO by N. Strašek, CHILDREN OF TRANSITION by M. Vukšić, JURIC: FORTRESS 1999 by Z. Jurić, L.E.F. by G. Trbuljak, ALL ABOUT EVE and WAR REPORTER by S. Kolbas, VASTATION by D. Matizović and I. Zelić, and TOGETHER by N.Puhovski.
In the true manner of a major international film festival, the SFF has been providing Factum’s authors and producers with a chance to meet and cooperate with their colleagues from around the World.
The story continues!