Expect the Unexpected!

Hrvatski državni arhiv

The film festival organized within the EU-funded project “co:op – community as opportunity” is the concluding activity of the project and signals the end of a four year long inspiring and exciting cooperation project with our project partners from all over Europe.

The festival will look back and reflect on on two special activity types carried out within the project: the “Adventures in Archives” film happenings and the “Bring Your History Days”.

“Adventures in Archives” invited high school kids, equipped with modern recording devices like digi cams and smartphones, behind the walls of archival institutions to spot the hidden treasures of historical material, learn about the various occupational areas in an archive and eventually discover how our cultural identities have evolved and their witnesses are being safe-guarded for the future.

The close cooperation between archives and education centres encouraged the understanding and perception of archives in the public, educated our younger generations on the manifold possibilities of professional qualifications, be it modern-day archivist, (art) historian, media production, journalism, restauration, international project or cultural management, and rose awareness for the shared heterogeneity of our cultural identities.

At the festival, the movies and clips produced by the students will be screened. Discussion rounds will reflect on the experiences made by the students themselves and also on the experiences made by the archive staff and pedagogues involved.

The “Bring Your History Days” documented the process on setting up Topotheques, an online service tool joining historic material from private collections and thus highlighting the vivid history of municipalities and communities. The documentations give insight into what it takes to build a topotheque and how important historic materials kept in private collections are with regard to enriching and broaden the perspective of the past.

At the film festival a closer look will be taken at the role a Topotheque can play for a community and how the voluntary participation of citizens in setting up a Topotheque raises awareness for the importance the past plays in the present – and for the future.

Programme