Take the team from Makedox, the documentary film festival that took place in June 2011 in Skopje,  put them in a van with a few tents, and a portable movie screen, and what happens is Makedox travelling cinema, the second chapter of Macedonia's only documentary film festival. Makedox took place in August, screening films in six villages and small cities: Lazaropole, Vevčani, Kavadarci, Gevgelija, Štip and Vinica.

"It doesn't make sense to stay in Skopje and wait for people to come and see such films", Makedox director Kirijana Nikoloska told Southeast Europe: People and Culture while driving back to the monastery where the Makedox festival team slept that night, near Kavadarci, in the centre of the republic. Nikoloska calls the travelling team, made up of 19 members, "a big family." It is the fifth stop on the "Travelling Makedox" route, which stretches from the west to the east of the country, showing films via open-air projection to whomever is interested in documentary film. It is a way to bring culture for free in a simple manner. "This idea also came up as a way to avoid having all events centralised in the capital Skopje." For Nikoloska, the most touching part of festival was Vevčani, a mountain village with 2,500 inhabitants.

Bringing screenings to mountain villages

"This was completely amazing for me. The energy that people gave us back was extremely rewarding, it filled my soul," said  Nikoloska. She describes a screening where the whole village, kids as well as grandmothers, gathered for a documentary made in 1962, Abandoned Altars, which presented the immigration of skilled handcrafts people from this very village and the Drimkol region.

"At the end of the screening, everyone wanted to talk about it. People even came up to ask where they could buy this film. I replied it's not for sale, it belongs to national cinemateka! An old woman even recognised people from her own family in the film," adds Nikoloska. Makedox's team seems to be on the journey of meeting people in various provinces of the country, and putting them in contact with stories of others people, through films.

In each city visited, Makedox screened a domestic film shot in the area of the screening, as well as an international film. Makedox chose films that showed stories, other realities, and problems, and how people handle them. Nikoloska believed it was a way for people to get closer to one another. "I know we could have had the same amount of people coming to see latest Batman movie, as such cultural events are rare in a mountain village. But what I am sure about is that they will remember these films for much longer than they would remember an average entertaining one. I think people will come out encouraged by these films and the messages they bring. The first film, shot in the Vevčani region, can make its people proud of where they come from and the skills they have. With the second film, they come closer to another reality, such as daily life in the Indian city of Kolkata (until 2001 known as Calcutta), which can eventually make them put their difficult daily life economical or working conditions in perspective. In both cases, they can come back from projection with ’full batteries.’"

Donkey cinema

Vevčani is just one chapter of the whole nomadic experience of Makedox. The inspiration of the concept comes from the 1920s, when films were circulated from one village to another via donkeys. The film material is different today, but the idea remains the same: show films where they have not yet been seen.

The festival next year will only take place in villages. For Nikoloska, it is motivation enough if only two people are touched by a film they’ve screened.


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