The 10th Annual Sarajevo International Film Festival

This is my second post today--I'm thinking of renaming this page the "Not-So-Occasional Photo Blog." Anyway...

In 2004, I traveled to Sarajevo with an NGO to document their programs for Bosnian, Croat and Serb teenagers in the area. In my spare time, I took pictures documenting different aspects of postwar Bosnia, and one of the stories I shot was on the Sarajevo International Film Festival, celebrating its 10th Anniversary that year. If you do the math, you'll realize that means that it started during the height of the war, when Sarajevo was still under siege. So the festival began as an attempt by people living in the city to regain a bit of normalcy and happiness in their lives, and to forget about the horror of the war for a short while. Well over 10,000 people turned out to see the screenings that first year, in 1995. They rolled out the red carpet for the first time in 2004, and began the festival with a fantastic fireworks display in the outdoor coliseum where films were screened nightly. Celebrities who made the pilgrimage included directors Gaspar Noe and Mike Leigh, as well as John Malkovich and, of course, Coolio. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Coolio--who was there to help promote his latest movie, a Croatian "Pulp Fiction" knockoff called "Ta Divna Splitska Noc." (He played Frankie the sailor.)

I liked the idea of photographing at the film festival, because, for one thing, it's a very upbeat story, and there's a real lack of those coming out of the Balkans--and it was also a great excuse to join the weeklong party. Anyway, I hope to post more images from Sarajevo soon--all the ones that don't make it on my website will probably end up here. Let me know what you think of them.