Under the title 'Yugoslav Avant-garde Film 1950s-1980s', the tour began early in March at New York’s Anthology Film Archives, continued at Pacific Film Archives in Berkeley and Cinémathèque Québécoise in Montreal (Canada). Next to films by Slovenian authors Karpo Godina and Davorin Marc, and two selection of Serbian alternative of the 1950s and 1960s, which included works by Dušan Makavejev, Živojin Pavlović, Kokan Rakonjac and Slobodan Šijan, the audience in four North American cities had a chance to see a selection of amateur and/or professional films by Vladimir Petek (Encounters, 1963), Tomislav Gotovac (The Morning of a Faun, 1963, Straight Line [Stevens-Duke] and Circle [Jutkevic-Count], 1964), Ivan Martinac (I’m Mad; Focus, 1967) and Lordan Zafranović (Portraits [passing by] II and Afternoon [The Shot Gun]). These filmmakers, along with Mihovil Pansini, Ante Verzotti and several others, are the most prominent envoys of the very lively Croatian experimental scene of the 1960s.

With a support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, completely new film copies were made for this programme and outstanding responses to the entire programme, coordinated by Jed Rapfogel, film critic and programmer with Anthology Film Archives, launched negotiations about new presentations of Croatian film at the probably globally most important institution for promotion, protection and screening of avant-garde and independent film.

In another context and under a different name, a selection of Croatian alternative film and video screened on 27 and 28 May at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), an art centre in Brooklyn with a 150-year-old tradition of presenting innovative trends and artists in the field of theatre, dance, music, opera and film. Under the name 'Artists, Amateurs, Alternative Spaces', a somewhat revised and amended rerun of the namesake TV series dedicated to experimental film in eastern Europe 1960-1990, shown in May last year at Washington’s National Gallery of Arts, BAM is showing anthology films and videos by Croatian artists: Tomislav Gotovac (Straight Line, 1964), Vladimir Petek (Encounters, 1963), Ivan Ladislav Galeta (TV Ping Pong, 1976-1978), Sanja Iveković (Personal Cut, 1982), Dalibor Martinis (Video Manual, 1976; Image Is Virus, 1983) and Goran Trbuljak (Cut, 1976).

Title photographs: Personal Cut; Encounters