BigzIN (trailer) - english subtitles

Authors:
Ana Đurović
Zoran Djurković
Danilo Lučić
Kristian Hajder
Katarina Lung

"The project BIGZ IN is planned as a documentary series of twelve episodes and ultimately a feature length documentary, exploring a cultural phenomenon currently happening in Belgrade, capital of Serbia. The story is set within a colossal old building, in the city centre, where artists are renting their workspace. The building spontaneously spawned into a huge alternative Cultural Centre, and a still fragile, emerging scene is struggling for its existence.

This monumental building, constructed between the World Wars, in the style of Bauhaus was home of the publishing giant of the communist Yugoslavia and a biggest printing house in the Balkans, Beogradski Izdavacki Graficki Zavod - BIGZ. Even as a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site, BIGZ was abandoned in the mid 90's and was slowly decaying ever since.

Since 2003 it is being rented by artists to be used as their studios. There are musicians, painters, actors, acrobats, craftsmen, photographers, dancing troupes, capoeirists, poets etc. Due to so many artists working in the vicinity of each other, their constant and varied collaborations resulted in a spontaneous, synergic, creative nucleus. A welcoming but energetic environment, open and uninhibited, with its studios mostly open to the audience, BIGZ is developing a fresh cultural scene; outside, beyond and challenging the mainstream establishment. These people are filling the vacuum outside the, well protected, institutionalized art circles. BIGZ is a place where to call yourself a poet; you only have to write a poem.

From the gloomy 90s with a civil war and a bloody breakup of Yugoslavia to the current economic crisis hitting hard already impoverished Serbia, its youth can no longer afford to wait for a better future. Against the smelly, overflowing toilets, hardly working, volatile lifts and all other odds; kids in BIGZ are creating an energetic, in your face, defiant and angry cultural scene. Completely self-supported, without any media coverage, their philosophy is 'We can't expect to get employed, we can't afford the drinks in bars, we might as well get together, rent the studios and play guitars'.

BIGZ IN is their voice. Through interviews with BIGZ artists, their audience, footage from the performances and rehearsals, it aims to introduce this brave youth to the general public."