There are many different opinions today on what documentary film is. Even conversations with leading producers are labeled as “documentaries” on the Internet. Most believe that this is a television film with voice-over and “talking heads”; some documentary directors try to look at life “as it is” by observation, without interfering in the course of things and without resorting to interviews, so as not to disturb the sense of reality. Doesn't the voice-over kill and edit all of reality and provide its saving total fixation? Which film will convey more authenticity? What goes on to build the story and what is the documentary actually about? What is reality in this reality and does it exist at all?

We will talk about the primary structures of mythological thinking that determine our perception of the world and ways of telling stories.

Emir Kusturica is probably the most celebrated and controversial Serbian and European film director working today. This Master class will attempt to get to the heart of the reasons for this by examining his work and its reception. As in Kusturica’s films, Professor Dragan M. Fimon, respected film historian, theoretician and critic from Serbia, will embark us on a picaresque journey, using terminology and methods imported from cultural studies, cinema theory, semiotics, postmodernism, literature, fine arts, and coffee-shop debates…