10/23 / FRIDAY / 6 pm / PRESS CENTRE
ROUND TABLE – Dangerous profession – discussion about documentary journalism
moderator: Oliver Sertić

To make documentaries or do serious research journalism today seems to be more dangerous then ever. Not only in some to us unfamiliar Africas, Near Easts or South Americas, in countries where it is not safe to travel, but also here there is a considerable number of those who risk their own safety and the safety of their families because of their profession. Every few months, news comes from Russia about another journalist casualty. Just a month ago French-Spanish director Christian Poveda was killed in El Salvador after the premier of his documentary ‘La Vida Loca’ which we screen in documentary competition at ZFF, the film made among dangerous Salvadorian gangs Mara 18’.

Exactly one year ago, in Zagreb centre, the editor in chief of the weekly Nacional, Ivo Pukanić, was killed and a few moths earlier journalist Dušan Miljuš was beaten up in front of his building.

From the nineties on, many Croatian journalists and documentarists have been exposed to threats because of the subjects they were interested in and for which they thought that citizens should see or read about. Notwithstanding, most of them stayed in the profession and continued to do what they do best even though it would have been much easier and often more profitable if they had filmed coalas or tropical flowers or written about restaurants and good vines.

We will talk to six documentarists and journalists from Belgrade, Osijek and Zagreb about what makes them do their job, why they do what they do and what their experiences are like.