In memoriam
- Boris Bencic
Zmagujoca podoba Narcisa (1983) - a portrait of Boris Bencic, directed by Slavko Hren, TV documentary, 30' - Pavle Grzincic
Dotik zvezd (1996) - directed by Pavle Grzincic, TV documentary, 50' - Jurij Kosak
(A)torsion (2002), directed by Stefan Arsenijevic, short, 16'
Balkan Roulette (1997), directed by Zdravko Barisic, short, 3'
Hop, Skip & Jump (2000), directed by Srdjan Vuletic, short, 16'
Boris Bencic (1957 - 2002)
In this hour of mercy, Boris, the world is awake tonight.
It lies on its back, eyes open.
Your eyes have flown one into the other, like neighbouring lakes.
To entrust each other with all that they have seen.
After you, that full laughter, voices wandering around a heart without commission.
Prophecies without water and stones, returned
and remaining sealed, like letters without an address and an addressee.
As far as my life, you used to say, I am always Venice:
All that streets should be is in other people.
And in me - love, dark and burning.
As far as my works,
I am always Cain.
A runaway and a drifter before an act he will not perform.
Or, after an act that cannot stay unfinished.
You have parted us through that closed window, the entire world out there,
and left us with the dream that it was
a flight of Love. The flight of Love is always painful.
Loving each other always starts like this:
Patiently enlacing solitude into solitude with trembling and precise hands.
Naviga con pace Boris, prendi cura ti te. Il mare del Signore e
cosi immenso e tua barca cosi fragile. Addio.
Joze Dolmark
Pavle Grzincic (1947 - 2003)
I have truly gotten to know Pavle at the seaside (!) in the late 60's when we were still students. He was the first Slovenian to study documentary film at the famous FAMU film academy in Prague, and his schoolfellows were the famous "Prague Ham" from all over Yugoslavia, Grlic, Markovic, Karanovic, Zafranovic ...
Then, at the seaside, he was filming a study, a documentary about the life and the people on Murter. He became well-known among the locals for his very veristic filming of a scene that unfolds on the shore every morning and is in essence a part of the family intimacy: Dalmatian women, dressed in black, empty chamber pots into the sea. Naturally, there was not a single woman willing to empty her chamber pot in front of the camera: in spite of my moustache, I was the one who had to wear a black skirt and a black headscarf, and empty a chamber pot. A thunder of laughter echoed from behind shutters and garden walls.
Pavle was the embodiment of curiosity, and characteristic for his inborn stubbornness, he preferred to take on any challenge alone, regardless of whether the challenge came from his film profession or his practical daily life. He usually filmed and also captured sound on a portable UHER device by himself; he also edited the film and, as far as I knew him, he probably pestered the people in the laboratory while they were making the copy. Nevertheless, he knew it all, although, in practice, not everything always went as planned and he was really close with the two "artists" from the Czech puppet series "A je to!". Whatever the case, in both, life and film, he always had enough of that famous dark Czech humour in store when all was done. When we finished our studies, each at his own end, he moved to Africa for a while where he made educational films and where he created a family.
Later, we met again at the then Ljubljana television station and started making a series about Slovenian photographers. We have not even reached Puhar when he had already spent all funds intended for the series: at the market in Metlika, he spread tons of sand over the asphalt, in the name of verism again. But that alone was not fatal yet - what did take us under was sweeping it and loading it onto a row of trucks!
At the Ljubljana television station and later, "freelancing", he made a variety of documentary films, commissioned films and commercial films. They were all very precisely made, professional and without a flaw - technically, formally or artistically. After twenty years, Puhar brought us together again, although, at the beginning, he did not believe we could continue a project we had started so many years ago. In spite of everything, to shared satisfaction and with a number of artistic surprises, we managed to complete the film and to show it, although the researcher in Pavle would have been happy to spend another five or six years on it.
As he did on his boat - in spite of his constant claims that the boat would be afloat in September. However, that was the time we were supposed to start filming a new documentary - about an exhibition of Slovenian impressionists in Vienna a hundred years ago. Even before we started, he "threatened" me with an electronic computer interpretation of the impressionistic style of painting: "You just press a button and everything looks impressionistic..." Well, which button in which programme would you have me press now?
Jurij Kosak (1953 - 2002)
In the late 70's, Jurij graduated from set design in film, working on The Call to Spring, directed by France Stiglic. At the same time, he started working as an assistant to the great set designer Niko Matula; they collaborated on 22 feature films, many of which were co-productions. In those beautiful learning years, learning was performed the old way, in loco, in practice. Experiences and secrets were passed on; the love for metier grew within the working process. From this devotion to the cause, Jurij entered the world of film a master of his profession, capable of dealing with the merciless - and due to our cultural and financial limitations - additionally burdening obstacles.
In 1985, he started working as an executive producer and as a producer. He produced six feature films: Someone Else by Bostjan Vrhovec (1987), The Jailers by Marjan Ciglic (1989), Morana by Ales Verbic (1991), Herzog by Mitja Milavec (1996) and The Abyss by Igor Smit (production manager). Occasionally, he still worked as a set designer in television series, dramas and numerous short films, as well as in theatre. With his advertising agencies, Studio 37 and Arkadena, he made a considerable contribution to the professional maturity of Slovenian advertising business.
Jurij was a filmmaker. He knew and loved film. Therefore, he was truly appreciated and valuable as a producer, but probably, as a man of such virtues and of a firm professional stand, also extremely lonely. We've lost him at a time when Slovenian film needed him most - in its adjustment to the European environment and to the new rules. Jure was one of the few people seriously preparing themselves for these challenges. It is sufficient to look at his last short films, the ones he considered fruit of such work - they were awarded in a manner deserving respect and he was rightfully proud of them: Balkan Roulette (1998) and My First Cut (1999) by Zdravko Barisic, Hop Skip And Jump (2000) by Srdjan Vuletic and Atorsion (2002) by Stefan Arsenijevic.
When someone parts us, an imprint of him stays in the world
representing all hopes they have dreamed about. This pursuit has the
power of a child's hand, which is tender, unspoiled and has a
future. Such a farewell opens a world that enables one to find oneself
within one's boundaries. Ill are equilibriums and cold are
unpredictable horizons. There is too much sorrow for a text about
sorrow. What remains are hope, gratitude and - addio Jure!
Joze Dolmark
Drustvo slovenskih filmskih ustvarjalcev
