The Yugoslav Newsreels of Belgrade collection is a site of forgotten and untold stories about solidarities and transnational collaborations in an era of anti-colonial struggle. For the past five years, the Non-Aligned Newsreels artistic research project, headed by filmmaker Mila Turajlić, has been focused on reactivating the political potential of these filmed materials. From the films made by the Yugoslav cameramen accompanying President Tito's '"Voyages of Peace" across the non-aligned world in the 1950s, to the footage taken for liberation movements and newly independent countries in the 1960s, the aim has been to explore how filmed images chronicled the birth of a political project, becoming at the same time the vehicle through which this community was constituted. Working with the original cameraman, and soliciting the subjectivities of those represented in the images, the project aims to resurrect forgotten narratives and to invite a reflection on the cinematic representation of political visions.

Mila Turajlić is an award-winning director born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Her documentary, The Other Side of Everything, won 32 awards including the prestigious IDFA Award for Best Documentary Film. It was nominated for the European Parliament’s LUX Prize. Mila’s previous film, Cinema Komunisto, premiered at Tribeca and won 16 awards including the FOCAL Award for Creative Use of Archival Footage. In 2018, she was commissioned by MoMA to create archive-based video installations for their landmark exhibition on Yugoslav architecture. In 2020, Mila was a Chicken & Egg Award grantee and invited to join the AMPAS Documentary Branch.

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